Model Predictive Based Energy Efficient Control of Grid-connected PV Systems

Maximum penetration of produced photovoltaic (PV) power to the grid is very important for modern power system. However, some power is dissipated in the dc/ac converter due to the improper control strategy. It makes the grid connected PV systems inefficient. Therefore, model predictive control (MPC) based energy efficient conversion of PV power is proposed in this paper. MPC selects an optimal control action in every sampling instant for the dc/ac converter by minimizing a predefined cost function. Hence, the controller yields lower current total harmonic distortion (THD) than the traditional pulse width modulation strategy, and thus lower loss in the semiconductor devices. As a result, more power can be penetrated to the ac grid corresponding to a specified PV system. Simulation results in terms of current tracking accuracy, current THD and load flow analysis are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the controller.