Standalone solar PV array fed SMC based PMSM driven water pumping system

A sliding mode control (SMC) based vector control of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive used in solar water pumping system is presented in this paper. The SMC gives good performance for motor-drive system under system parameter variations, load disturbances and sudden change in reference speed. The solar PV array is operated at maximum power point through a boost converter. The DC bus voltage of the system is held constant through the DC link voltage proportional-integral (PI) controller. The output of DC link voltage PI controller and the PV array feed forward term are used to generate reference speed command. The speed of PMSM is controlled through vector control. Switching signals for voltage source inverter (VSI) are generated using the hysteresis current controller. The proposed system is designed, modeled and simulated on MATLAB/Simulink platform. The starting, steady-state and dynamic performances of the system are examined for variable environmental conditions. A prototype of the system is also developed in the laboratory.