Requirements of the Control System:

1-Meet/exceed power demand of the house with no blackouts

2-Minimize energy losses in the system (due to excessive surpass in power delivery)
3-Minimize switching in the electric circuit of the charge controller, DC/DC booster and DC/AC
Inverter
4-Minimize Charge/Discharge cycles in the battery

High-level block diagram of the system

Solar Irradiance [ KW] Power [KW]

Solar Generator Voltage [V]

Ambient Temperature[C]

Current [Amp]
Previous Power Load[KW]
 The PV setup shown in
figure 1.0 shows the three identical
surface temperature sensors of
each solar panel. The setup has 2
identical panels connected in
parallel, PVs 2&3 from top to
bottom respectively.
The purpose of these sensors is to
collect the temperature signatures
of each panel`s surface. This
temperature readings are then used
to simulate the PV output in relation
to both solar irradiance and the PVs
surface temperature.
PV1, on top holds the solar
radiation sensor that detects the
intensity of light received by the
PVs during daytime. The output of
this sensor is fed to an arduino
microcontroller board together with
the surface temperature sensors.
The angle of solar irradiance
reception for each panel is equal.
Solar irradiance differ in altitude,
thus we can say that among the Figure 1.0. PV Setup with solar radiation sensor and
three solar panels, PV1 receives PV surface temperature sensors installed.
the
most and PV3 receives the least amount of solar energy. PV1 has a power rating of 85
watts and PVs 2&3 are rated at 100 watts of power each.

Table 1.0. PV Electrical Ratings at 1000W/m2, The figure on the left

25 °C. represents the indoor
Parameters PV1 PV2 PV3 setup of the system. The
Peak Power
output of the solar
85 W 100 W 100 W
(Pmax) panels outside are fed to
the electrical panel and
Voltage (Vmp) 17 V 17 V 17 V
is connected to the
Current (Imp) 5A 5.88 A 5.88 A charge controller. The
battery is then
Open Circuit
21.5 V 21.5 V 21.5 V connected to the solar
Voltage (VOC)
Short Circuit charge controller and
5.49 A 6.37 A 6.37 A
Current (ISC) inverter to power up AC
Minimum
10 A 12 A 12 A loads such as the
Bypass Diode
Maximum computers and several
9A 10 A 10 A
Series Fuse devices shown in the
figure. The capacity of
 The different electrical parameters of
the PV modules are shown in table 1.0.
Note that PVs 2 and 3 are exactly
identical. The PVs has equal voltage
output (Vmp) and open circuit voltage of
21.5. Keep in mind that these are the
maximum factory ratings under 25 °C of
controlled testing temperature. PV1 has
lower current rating compared to PV2
and PV3. PV1 has 45 cells connected in
series while PVs 2 and 3 has 36 cells
each that are also in series connection.
The measurement of PV performance is
on daily basis on a regular 8 hour period.
On the next page, the indoor setup will be
introduced to further complete the system
of our renewable energy source powering
up several devices

Table 2.0. Electrical specifications of indoor system devices.

Devices Voltage Current Power

Solar Charge Controller 12 V DC 20 A 240 W

Battery Bank 12 V DC 320 AH 3840 WH

Inverter 230 V AC 13 A 3000 W appx

To allow a constant in and out flow of electricity to the system, loads are connected.
This will prevent automatic cut-off of the battery bank charge as it takes in current from the
PVs. A block diagram of the system is further described in figure 3.0.

Figure 3.0. The block diagram of the PV system.

 The system has 2 inputs, the solar irradiance and temperature. These parameters are
absorbed by the solar panels. The “V” inscribed in a circle represents voltage measurement
and the “A” inscribed in a circle represents the current reading. PV1 has its own charge
controller while PVs 2 and 3 share a single charge controller. Both the output of each charge
controllers are connected to the battery bank that is also connected to the inverter powering up
the 3 electrical loads. With this setup, the system is complete. We allow the continuous
charging of the battery at the same time consuming energy for the loads. The solar irradiance,
pv surface temperature, voltage and current measurement s are done through a
microcontroller. The collected data are then consolidated in an excel file. Below is example of
the collected data.
The data collected with an interval of 4 seconds will be used to create a simscape
model of the system. The objective is compare the model to the actual output value of the
system. Not all parts will be used, the model will be isolated on the photovoltaic cells, current,
voltage, and temperature measurements together with the solar irradiance. The state of charge
of the battery is also monitored by measuring its output voltage while the whole system is
running. Other parts such as the loads, inverter, and solar charge controller are neglected.
To begin with the modeling, we must take note that in theory, there is a 1000 watts of
solar energy in a single square meter area. This is the ideal scenario, however, things are a lot
different with the actual measurement, many factors affects the absorption of solar energy by
the photovoltaic cells such as, cloud formations in the sky, wind, ambient temperature and
sunlight. On our model, we will concentrate on the solar irradiance and temperature as inputs.

The output of the model are graphs representing the data gathered on the excel sheet
in contrast with the simscape output. Since PV2 & 3 are in parallel, they will share a single
output graph. Battery bank voltage is also simulated and SOC or state of charge in percentage.

Note: Plot of current is ok. Plot of voltage is not correct, minimum voltage rom 7am is already
around 12 volts plus.

Figure 4.0. PV1 plot of data showing the current, voltage and
power.
 Figure 6.0. PV2&3 plot of data showing current, voltage and power outputs.

PVs 2&3 current is around 5.6 amperes with the voltage of 14.8 has a power output of
approximately 83 watts. It is also noticeable that a sudden drop of current has made the sharp
slope on both voltage and power. We will further discuss the model results on the succeeding
pages of this chapter. Now, we will proceed on discussing the two inputs, solar irradiance and
temperature.
As you may recall on table 1.0, the PV ratings listed on the panel are measured on a
controlled environment having maximum ambient temperature of 25 °C. The PV model that we
will build will be based on the actual current and voltage values of the panel. The gathered pv surface
temperature and solar irradiance values will be the placed on an excel sheet and will be imported to the
simscape platform to provide us a near identical model of the pv`s actual output. Below is the result of
the excel file plotted data. The graph in figure 7.0 of solar irradiance on y-axis vs time on the x-axis, the
unit is in watts. The usual peak sunlight hours is mostly detected from 9:30 in the morning till 2 in the
afternoon. Meanwhile, the graph of the pv surface temperature is constantly changing. As shown in
figure 8.0, the max temperature is around 53 °C.

Figure 7.0. Modeled graph of solar irradiance.

Figure 7.0. The model of the pv surface temperature