PSIM circuit-oriented simulator model for the nonlinear photovoltaic sources

The photovoltaic (PV) generator exhibits a nonlinear i-v characteristic and its operating point depends on the nature of the connected load and solar insolation. In this article a simple and accurate PV model suitable for circuit-oriented simulator, PSIM, is developed. Necessary theory and mathematical treatment for the solar cell array model is discussed. To verify the model, i-v characteristics are generated through simulation for different solar insolations and compared with the experimentally obtained characteristics. The developed circuit models are integrated into the PV system and as an example a maximum power (MP) point tracking of PV system with dc-dc converter is considered here. Simulation and experimental result are in close agreement with each other. This verifies the accuracy and suitability of the developed circuit-oriented models.