Effective control and battery charging system of an island PV power plant
¹Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrotechnology, Technicka 2, CZ166 27 Pague 6, Czech Republic
²Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Kamycka 129, CZ165 21 Prague 6 ˗ Suchdol, Czech Republic
*Correspondence: papezovas@tf.czu.cz
Abstract:
The paper presents a new concept of an autonomous PV power plant regulatory system with LiFePO4 batteries, which was functionally verified. The hardware system is significantly simpler and more operationally reliable. It also shows higher efficiency and lower acquisition costs than conventional commercial systems. The proposed control system was optimized for charging a multi-cell battery by PV electric energy. The system automatically maximizes the power supplied by the photovoltaic source and minimizes the power loss caused by balancing the individual cell charging processes. The problem of charge balancing is solved without the balancers. Battery cells are recharged from the separate converters supplying the PV power. The converters are controlled to observe a LiFePO4 battery charging mode while controlling the photovoltaic generator (PVG) load resistance based on an MPP monitoring. PVG power is not supplied to the charged cells, which are in this way protected from overcharging. The entire PVG power is fed to the cells to be charged. The transmission from the converters is controlled in order not to exceed the voltage and current limits at the terminals and to minimize the actual voltage deviation from the control voltage at the PVG output. The control voltage is generated as an MPP voltage approximation according to the load characteristics and the actual PVG operating conditions.
Key words:
autonomous PV power plant regulatory system, LiFePO4 battery, MPP tracking