INTERCONNECTION OF A PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATOR (PVG)  TO A MAIN SUPPLY: A PRACTICAL STUDY

Authors

This paper presents a technique for interconnecting

a photovoltaic generator (PVG) to a main supply of AC nature.

The technique has been implemented practically in one of the

laboratories of the author’s work place. The technique uses a

single phase full wave bridge rectifier. Such bridge rectifier is

operated in an inverter mode of operation and that is to guaranty

its contribution of real power to a main AC supply. The bridge

rectifier is controlled by a practical firing angle controller

developed in LABVIEW software environment. The firing angle

controller is interfaced to the power bridge rectifier through the

use of simple optocoupler and pulse transformer elements. The

practical results show that under a certain

insolation/irradiation level (taken randomly) and for a resistive

load requiring presumably130 W power , the PVG source was

contributing 90 W power to such power load and the AC grid

was contributing 40 W to such power load

The technique of interconnection alleviates the problem of

synchronization encountered often when using the traditional

way of interconnecting the DC grid (made of conventional

renewable energy resources) to the AC grid system.