Adaptive voltage control of the DC/DC boost stage in PV converters with small input capacitor

In the case of photovoltaic (PV) systems, an adequate PV voltage regulation is fundamental in order to both maximize and limit the power. For this purpose, a large input capacitor has traditionally been used. However, when reducing that capacitor size, the nonlinearities of the PV array make the performance of the voltage regulation become highly dependent on the operating point. This paper analyzes the nonlinear characteristics of the PV generator and clearly states their effect on the control of the DC/DC boost stage of commercial converters by means of a linearization around the operating point. Then, it proposes an adaptive control, which enables the use of a small input capacitor preserving at the same time the performance of the original system with a large capacitor. Experimental results are carried out for a commercial converter with a 40 μF input capacitor, and a 4 kW PV array. The results corroborate the theoretical analysis; they evidence the problems of the traditional control, and they validate the proposed control with such a small capacitor.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grants DPI2009-14713-C03-01 and DPI2010-21671-C02-01 and by the Public University of Navarra