Current Sources and Actual PV Modules based Photovoltaic (PV) Emulator for Testing MPPT Algorithms and PV Inverters

PV array emulator has been widely used for testing PV inverters and their control algorithms such as maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. Various power electronics converter-based PV emulators have been presented in many research papers. This paper presents a PV emulator that is based on indoor solar panels (without solar irradiance) and external current source (dc power supply). The external current source is used to emulate the photo current that is usually generated by solar panel under sunlight. The advantages of the proposed PV emulator are that it can generate similar electrical characteristics of actual PV panel without sunlight, it is suitable for testing PV inverters and MPPT algorithms in indoor conditions where the sunlight is usually very weak. In addition, a PV array emulator that can emulate electrical performance under partial shading conditions was constructed by using two solar panels and two current sources. Test results show that the proposed PV emulator provides a similar performance of real PV array under real sun light. It provides a low-cost solution for testing PV inverters and control algorithms inside a laboratory environment.