Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision
In addition to their main functionality of converting DC input power to AC output power, today’s photovoltaic inverters are generally required to be capable of providing reactive power. While there are well-established mathematical models that use the correlation between inverter losses a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IEEE
2022-01-01
|
| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9915397/ |
| _version_ | 1811182599048003584 |
|---|---|
| author | Robin Grab Franziska Hans Mariano Ivan Rojas Flores Heribert Schmidt Soenke Rogalla Bernd Engel |
| author_facet | Robin Grab Franziska Hans Mariano Ivan Rojas Flores Heribert Schmidt Soenke Rogalla Bernd Engel |
| author_sort | Robin Grab |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In addition to their main functionality of converting DC input power to AC output power, today’s photovoltaic inverters are generally required to be capable of providing reactive power. While there are well-established mathematical models that use the correlation between inverter losses and the transmitted active power to estimate inverter efficiency for any given active power operating point, the additional losses in the inverter due to the supply of reactive power are less well studied. In this work, the conversion efficiencies of three different photovoltaic inverters were measured for various active power and reactive power setpoints. Based on these measurements, two mathematical models are proposed to represent the conversion losses as a function of active and reactive output power. One model is of empirical nature and expands preexisting models to include terms that take the reactive power into consideration. The other model takes the dominant loss mechanisms in the conversion stage of inverters into account and considers the effect of reactive power provision on them. Both models were compared with a model variant proposed in literature. They are shown to perform with high accuracy over the entire operating range, while requiring only a small number of known efficiency values for parametrization. There are several fields of application for these new models: They allow photovoltaic park operators to precisely estimate the individual losses of a solar power plant that feeds reactive power into the grid. For grid operators, they enable a comparative loss analysis for different reactive power sources. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:34:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-74c9f85abab540fdb1626bbe6cba4b42 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:34:32Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-74c9f85abab540fdb1626bbe6cba4b422022-12-22T04:31:46ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-011010850610851610.1109/ACCESS.2022.32132729915397Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power ProvisionRobin Grab0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4877-119XFranziska Hans1Mariano Ivan Rojas Flores2Heribert Schmidt3Soenke Rogalla4Bernd Engel5Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, GermanyTechint Engineering and Construction S.A., San Luis, ArgentinaFraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, Germanyelenia Institute for High Voltage Technology and Power Systems, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Brunswick, GermanyIn addition to their main functionality of converting DC input power to AC output power, today’s photovoltaic inverters are generally required to be capable of providing reactive power. While there are well-established mathematical models that use the correlation between inverter losses and the transmitted active power to estimate inverter efficiency for any given active power operating point, the additional losses in the inverter due to the supply of reactive power are less well studied. In this work, the conversion efficiencies of three different photovoltaic inverters were measured for various active power and reactive power setpoints. Based on these measurements, two mathematical models are proposed to represent the conversion losses as a function of active and reactive output power. One model is of empirical nature and expands preexisting models to include terms that take the reactive power into consideration. The other model takes the dominant loss mechanisms in the conversion stage of inverters into account and considers the effect of reactive power provision on them. Both models were compared with a model variant proposed in literature. They are shown to perform with high accuracy over the entire operating range, while requiring only a small number of known efficiency values for parametrization. There are several fields of application for these new models: They allow photovoltaic park operators to precisely estimate the individual losses of a solar power plant that feeds reactive power into the grid. For grid operators, they enable a comparative loss analysis for different reactive power sources.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9915397/DC-AC power convertersloss measurementphotovoltaic systemspower conversionreactive power control |
| spellingShingle | Robin Grab Franziska Hans Mariano Ivan Rojas Flores Heribert Schmidt Soenke Rogalla Bernd Engel Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision IEEE Access DC-AC power converters loss measurement photovoltaic systems power conversion reactive power control |
| title | Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision |
| title_full | Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision |
| title_fullStr | Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision |
| title_short | Modeling of Photovoltaic Inverter Losses for Reactive Power Provision |
| title_sort | modeling of photovoltaic inverter losses for reactive power provision |
| topic | DC-AC power converters loss measurement photovoltaic systems power conversion reactive power control |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9915397/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT robingrab modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision AT franziskahans modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision AT marianoivanrojasflores modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision AT heribertschmidt modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision AT soenkerogalla modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision AT berndengel modelingofphotovoltaicinverterlossesforreactivepowerprovision |