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Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002

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Battery-integrated boost converter utilizing distributed

MPPT configuration for photovoltaic systems
Yang Du ⇑, Dylan Dah-Chuan Lu
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, The University of Sydney, Australia

Received 9 April 2011; accepted 10 May 2011

Available online 2 June 2011

Communicated by: Associate Editor Takhir Razykov

Abstract

In this paper, a battery-integrated boost converter utilizing the distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) configuration
for a photovoltaic (PV) system is studied. Each PV module has its own battery and DC/DC converter. Due to the proposed topology and
use of battery, the MPPT function is not affected by the load demand and input power from PV. Application of the proposed converter
to DMPPT configuration can save the voltage amplification stage and maintain PV voltage during partial shading. Steady-state analysis
of the converter to determine the power flow equations is presented. Comparison with the series-connected conventional boost converter
is reported in this paper. Simulation and experiment results of a laboratory prototype are presented to verify the effectiveness of the pro-
posed approach. System design considerations are also discussed.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Battery-integrated; Boost converter; Distributed maximum power point tracking; Photovoltaic systems

1. Introduction system efficiency becomes more economically important

Harnessing solar energy has been considered as a way to
solve the problems of the energy crisis and global warming
(Razykov et al., in press). The PV industry is growing rap-
idly, the annual growth rate has been more than 40% for
the last decade (Kroposki et al., 2009). In order to generate
AC power from the PV modules to the grid, which is at
220–240Vrms in most countries, a power electronics inter-
face is needed. This interface has two main functions: con-
version of DC voltage to an appropriate AC current for the
grid or load and tracking the maximum power point of the
PV module for maximum power output.
Although the price of the PV system is decreasing, it is
still expensive compared to conventional energy sources.
Feed-in tariff has already been proven as a successful
example to improve the PV system penetration, and high
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yang.du@sydney.edu.au (Y. Du).
when utilizing this subsidy. High efficiency inverters can
lower the cost by using fewer modules for a certain amount
of energy demand. Simplified topology and integrated
functionality can also decrease the inverter cost and reduce
the rate of e-waste production.
The output power of PV systems can vary drastically in
seconds. At high levels of PV penetration, this intermit-
tency can cause problems with utility operations and on
load-side equipment due to fluctuations in grid voltage
and power factor. In the future power system, fluctuations
on this scale will not be allowed (Hanley et al., 2009). Inte-
grated PV and energy storage systems provide a combina-
tion of financial, operational, and environmental benefits
to the system’s owner and to the utility through peak shav-
ing and reliability applications (Manz et al., 2008).
The configuration of the PV modules influences the
obtainable energy yield. There are three widely used PV
system configurations (Kjaer et al., 2005): the centralized
inverter system, the string based inverter system and the

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2011.05.008
 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002
AC module or the module integrated converter (MIC) sys-
tem. In the present market, the power electronics system is
mainly designed for centralized two-stage inverter configu-
ration. This centralized inverter achieves the function of
MPPT, DC/AC inversion and an AC interface to the grid.
The power losses are normally high in this configuration,
mainly due to mismatch losses between the modules
(Picault et al., 2010). If any of the PV modules in the string
fail, the whole string or even the whole system has to be
shut down. Those problems limit the development of the
PV industry (Petrone et al., 2008). The string based inverter
can save the voltage amplification stage when compared
with the MIC system, but the mismatch loss among the
modules in the string is the major shortcoming (Sadok
and Mehdaoui, 2008). The AC module or MIC offers a
“plug and play” concept and greatly increases system
flexibility (Kjaer et al., 2005; Carrasco et al., 2006; Sahan
et al., 2008; Choi and Lai, 2010). This is considered as
the trend for future PV system development (Kjaer et al.,
2005), (Li and Wolfs, 2008). However there are still some
challenges such as cost, reliability and stability for grid
connection (Liserre et al., 2006), and the required high step
up ratio usually causes low efficiency or additional power
processing stage. There is a configuration, referred to as
DMPPT, which combines the merit of the string inverter
and the MIC inverter configuration. Analysis on DMPPT
will be reported in Section 3.
In (Du and Lu, 2010), a battery-integrated boost con-
verter proposed in (Lu and Agelidis, 2009), is studied for
DMPPT configuration. This paper extends the analysis,
presenting a detailed comparison with the series-connected
conventional boost converter and additional experiment
results using close-loop control. The paper is organized
as follows: The operation principle and analysis are dis-
cussed in Section 2. Comparison of the proposed system
with the series-connected conventional boost converter is
presented in Section 3. Simulation and experiment results
are shown in Section 4. Some design issues are discussed
in Section 5. Discussion and conclusion are given in Section
6 and 7.
2. Operating principle and analysis
The circuit diagram of the battery-integrated boost con-
verter is shown in Fig. 1. The boost converter, which con-
sists of an inductor L, a power switch S, a diode D and a
capacitor C, works both as a battery charger/discharger
and MPPT. A battery is connected in series with the PV
module to provide a path for direct power transfer and
assistance to MPPT.
In order to simplify the analysis of operation, it is
assumed that during the on-state, semiconductors exhibit
zero resistance as they are short-circuited. The input volt-
age and current from the PV module are both variable,
and the internal resistance of the battery is neglected.
To aid the explanation of the converter operation, Fig. 2
shows the topological stages of the circuit in Fig. 1 during a
1993
Fig. 1. Proposed battery-integrated boost converter.
switching cycle under two different scenarios, whereas
Fig. 3 shows the power-stage key waveforms.
Assuming no conversion loss, the instantaneous input
power from the PV module hPini is equal to the output
power hPouti plus the power delivered to the battery hPBi
which can be either positive or negative.
hP in i ¼ hP out i þ hP B i ð1Þ
As shown in Fig. 1, the input current from the PV mod-
ule hIini, inductor current hILi and battery current hIBi of
the converter is governed by:
hI in i ¼ hI L i þ hI B i ð2Þ
The output voltage Vout is equal to the sum of input
voltage Vin and battery voltage VB
V out ¼ V in þ V B ð3Þ
There are three possible scenarios:
(1) When input power is smaller than output power, the
current flow diagram is as indicated in Fig. 2a and b.
iB is positive, which means it is flowing in the same
direction as defined in Fig. 1. The battery is discharg-
ing to provide the power in series with the PV module
to the load.
(2) When input power is larger than output power, the
current flow diagram is shown in Fig. 2c and d. iB
is negative, which means it is flowing in the opposite
direction as defined in Fig. 1. The battery is charging
to store extra power from the PV module.
(3) When the input power is equal to the output power,
the battery will charge and discharge the same
amount of energy during two switching stages in
one cycle. The power directly flows from the PV mod-
ule to the load without store the energy in the battery.
The battery power flows in the same direction as iB in all
scenarios respectively. They can be either positive, negative
or zero; however, the voltage relationship of the three sce-
narios, described by equations, are the same. The operation
principle under the first scenario is depicted in detail as
follows:
Stage A (switch ‘on’; Fig. 2a); t0 6 t 6 t1
1994 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002

Fig. 2. Two stages equivalent circuit operating in CCM: (a and c) is Stage A; (b and d) is Stage B.

Fig. 3. Gate voltage and inductor current waveforms (CCM).

At time t0, S is turned on, L is charged up by Vin, and D
is reverse-biased, as shown in Fig. 2a). The duration of on-
time of S is controlled by the MPPT controller to maintain
the input voltage constant for MPPT (Kjaer et al., 2005).
As shown in the waveform in Fig. 3, the inductor current
increases linearly, whereas battery current decreases at
the same rate.
power application, CCM operation of L is preferred as it
reduces the input current ripple and filtering requirement.
At time t2, S is turned on again to repeat the next switching
cycle.
It can be observed that the PV module shares the load
demand with the battery and charges the battery through
the converter simultaneously.

Stage B (switch ‘off’; Fig. 2b); t1 6 t 6 t2 2.1. Continuous current mode (CCM)

At time t1, S is turned off, the energy stored in L is cou- According to the equivalent circuit, when the converter
pled to the battery VB, diode D starts conducting, as shown works in CCM, the inductor current increases linearly at
in Fig. 2b. The inductor current decreases linearly, whereas time ton
battery current increases at the same rate. L can work in
either discontinuous current conduction mode (DCM) or DI
V in ¼ L ð4Þ
continuous current conduction mode (CCM). For high- ton
 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002 1995

At time toff, the battery voltage VB is 1 LDI LDI LDIðV in þ V B Þ

T ¼ ¼ ton þ toff ¼ þ ¼ ð10Þ
DI f V in VB V in V B
V B ¼ V out  V in ¼L ð5Þ
toff The current ripple in the inductor DI can be found by
Eqs. (4) and (5) gives substituting (10) into (7):
1 V in V B T ð1  DÞV B
V out ¼ V in ð6Þ DI ¼ ¼ ð11Þ
1D LðV in þ V B Þ fs L
The converter has a similar voltage conversion ratio as
In order to have a continuous current in the inductor,
the boost converter.
the minimum value of inductance is defined as the critical
However, substituting (6) into (5) gives
inductance Lc. When this happens, the stored energy in
D 1D the inductor is completely expended just prior to the begin-
VB ¼ V in ) V in ¼ VB ð7Þ
1D D ning of the next switching cycle. The peak inductor current
Regarding VB as the output voltage, the converter serves ILp, is twice the average inductor current IL
as a buck-boost converter. Since the battery voltage has a 1 1 ð1  DÞV B
roughly constant value, changing duty cycle D can control I L ¼ I Lp ¼ DI ¼ ð12Þ
2 2 2f s Lc
the input voltage Vin as indicated in (7). Hence the battery
voltage can be used to achieve MPPT via the fractional The critical inductance Lc can be found by assuming
open circuit voltage method or other algorithms without there is no power loss during the switch cycle. The power
taking into consideration other factors, such as load flows though the converter can be expressed as:
demand, input power etc.
P in ¼ V in I in ð13Þ
2.2. Critical inductance (L)
P B ¼ V BI B ð14Þ
When the converter works in CCM, the turn-on and ðV in þ V B Þ2
turn-off time are given by: P out ¼ ð15Þ
R
LDI
ton ¼ ð8Þ According to (2):
V in
LDI I B ¼ I in  I L ð16Þ
toff ¼ ð9Þ
VB
Then, substitute (13)–(16) into (1):
The switching period T is the sum of ton and toff:

Fig. 4. Stage B equivalent circuit operating in the DCM.

1996 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002

2
ðV in þ V B Þ V in ton fs  V B ðt2  t1 Þfs ¼ 0 ) ðV in þ V B ÞD  V B t2 fs ¼ 0
V in I in þ V B ðI in  I L Þ ¼ )
R ð20Þ
ðV in þ V B Þ2 V in I in
I L ¼ I in  þ ð17Þ The average inductor current IL is
V BR VB
I LP t2 fs 2I L
By substituting (7) into (17), IL is found to be: IL ¼ ) t2 fs ¼ ð21Þ
2 I LP
I in VB
IL ¼  ð18Þ Substituting (21) into (20) gives
D D2 R
ðV in þ V B ÞDI LP  2V B I L ¼ 0 ð22Þ
Substitute (18) into (12):
where ILP is the peak current of the inductor. The voltage
ð1  DÞV B
Lc ¼ ð19Þ across the inductor is related to the rate of increase of its
2f s ðIDin  DV2BRÞ current
I LP L V in ton V in DT
V in ¼ ) I LP ¼ ¼ ð23Þ
2.3. Discontinuous current mode (DCM) ton L L
The battery current IB is
It is necessary to modify the equivalent circuit of Stage
2
B (S turns off) to account for the energy in the inductor P out  P in ðV In þ V B Þ V in I in
IB ¼ ¼  ð24Þ
that has been expended before the start of the next switch- VB RV B VB
ing cycle, as shown in Fig. 4 and the corresponding wave-
By substituting (24) into (2), the inductor current IL is
form in Fig. 5. Fig. 4 shows the current flow of stage B
when input power is less than output power (scenario ðV In þ V B Þ2 V in I in
1), Fig. 4c and d shows the same stage under the second I L ¼ I in  I B ¼ I in  þ ð25Þ
RV B VB
scenario.
Define t2, which is less than the switching period T, as Substituting (23) and (25) into (22) gives (26) then solv-
the time at which the inductor current iL(t) goes to zero ing Eq. (26) for Vin gives (27), which is the relationship
(see Fig. 7). According to the constant volt-second require- between the PV voltage and battery voltage.
ment, the average inductor voltage per cycle for the buck- V 2in ðD2 TR þ 2LÞ þ V in ðV B D2 TR  2LRI in þ 4LV B Þ
boost converter operating in the DCM is zero.
þ 2LV B ðV B  RI in Þ ¼ 0 ð26Þ

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðV B D2 TR  2LRI in þ LV B Þ  ðV B D2 TR  2LRI in þ LV B Þ2  4  ðD2 TR þ 2LÞ  2LV B ðV B  RI in Þ
V in ¼ ð27Þ
2  ðD2 TR þ 2LÞ

Fig. 5. Gate voltage and inductor current waveforms (DCM).

 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002
Fig. 6. Block diagram of series connected distributed DC–DC converter
PV System with energy backup.
Fig. 7. Block diagram of proposed battery-integrated boost converter in
module-based series connected PV system.
3. Comparison to series connected conventional boost
converter
Some researchers have proposed several new connection
methods referred to as “DMPPT” or “distributed power
electronics”, as shown in Fig. 6 (Shimizu et al., 2001;
Walker and Sernia, 2004; Femia et al., 2008; Gao et al.,
2009; Kim et al., 2009; Linares et al., 2009). In order to
overcome the mismatch problems, each module has its
own converter and it performs the individual MPPT func-
tion. The DMPPT concept was also presented in (Shimizu
et al., 2001), although it is referred to as Generation Con-
trol Circuit. In (Walker and Sernia, 2004), several basic
DC/DC converter topologies for PV applications are pre-
sented. The efficiency comparison between buck, boost
and buck-boost converters is reported. In (Linares et al.,
2009), a ‘smart distributed power electronics’ is proposed
to improve the energy capture in a PV series string. A
DC and small-signal AC model is derived to analyze steady
state behavior (dynamics and stability) of the DMPPT sys-
tem in (Femia et al., 2008).
Although the DMPPT configuration achieves better per-
formance, when partial shading occurs, there are still some
1997
limitations. Due to the series connection of distributed con-
verter output ports, the output current must be the same,
output string voltage (Vstring) is fixed, the output voltage
of a specific converter is related to the ratio between its out-
put power and total output power. Hence, the output volt-
age of each converter may vary in a wide range, and the
power electronic components have to be overdesigned to
accommodate the high stress and thus increase the cost.
In addition, the output voltage of the converter can even
decrease below the reference voltage (Vref) which is the
maximum power point (MPP) voltage. This means that is
not possible for the boost converter to control the PV volt-
age at MPP in this scenario. Care must be taken when
choosing the DC/DC converter topology and components,
as well as of the string size and inverter’s operating voltage,
in the design of a PV system with DMPPT (Femia et al.,
2008). Although in (Femia et al., 2008) the two limitations
are mentioned, there is no experimental verification. In Sec-
tion 4 two series connected boost converters are built to
verify this analysis.
In (Bratcu et al.), the authors also mention this voltage
sharing limitation. A supervisor algorithm is proposed
which then attempts to establish the best suboptimal power
regime. A comparison of series DMPPT configuration and
parallel configuration has also been reported. Experimental
verification however has not been provided.
The operation condition of the non-shaded PV module
can be affected by the shaded module in the same string.
The output voltage of each converter depends on the ratio
between power output of the corresponding PV module
and total power output, the PV voltage of non-shaded
modules will be drawn away from MPP before the control
system adjusts the PV voltage back to the MPP. This pro-
cess will cause unwanted MPPT losses, since the non-
shaded PV modules cannot work at MPPT all the time
and generate maximum power continuously.
The battery-integrated boost converter, applied to the
module-based series-connected PV system as shown in
Fig. 7, is therefore proposed to alleviate the aforemen-
tioned problems. It has some advantages compared to the
series-connected conventional boost converter.
Firstly, as shown in Fig. 1, the PV module has to share
the load with the battery and charge the battery simulta-
neously (Lu and Agelidis, 2009). A portion of the energy
generated from the PV module is transferred directly to
the output without being stored into the battery first and
then processed at a later time. The lesser the amount of
power being processed repeatedly, the smaller switching
loss the system will suffer. It has been experimentally pro-
ven effective in AC/DC conversion (Lu et al., 2003).
Secondly, with integrated energy storage, in a certain
range of insolation variation, the converter can maintain
a stable PV input voltage. According to (7), the input volt-
age can only be affected by battery voltage and the duty
cycle when the converter works in CCM. Hence, the con-
verter output voltage is relatively stable; the component
voltage stress requirement can be lowered. Compared to
1998 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002
the series-connected conventional boost converter, the pro-
posed converter offers a “multiple-port” concept, which
can help to stabilize the PV voltage, because the energy
storage can extract the extra power from PV or provide
the shortage power to the load.
For battery-integrated converters connecting in series,
there are no such limitations compared to the conventional
boost converter system mentioned above. Any number of
PV modules and converter units can be connected in series,
the output voltage variation will be controlled in a rela-
tively small range. Because the PV voltage can remain con-
stant under most insolation variation, this system has more
chance to achieve MPP and has fewer MPPT losses.
4. Simulation and experiment results
The converter is simulated using Switcher-CADIII/
LTSpice from Linear Technology; the circuit diagram is
shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Researchers have proposed a lot
of models to simulate the PV modules. The model in (Vil-
lalva et al., 2009) is used in this paper, because this model is
simple, fast, accurate, and easy-to-use. One controllable
current source and two (series and parallel) resistors are
used to simulate the performance of the PV module. The
two resistors are adjusted based on the commercial product
datasheet (BP_Solar, 2009) at three points: the open circuit,
maximum power, and short circuit to simulate that maxi-
mum power of the real module. Two battery-integrated
boost converters are modeled to verify the series-connected
system functionality. Two series connected conventional
boost converters are also simulated for comparison under
varying insolation levels.
A hardware laboratory prototype, as shown in Fig. 10,
operating at 20 kHz was built and tested to verify the anal-
ysis in previous sections. The components parameters can
Fig. 8. Series connected boost converter PV system.
be found in Fig. 9. Module 1 uses the same component
as Module 2. The parameter of the PV module used in
the experiment can be found in (BP_Solar, 2009).
Single module open-loop voltage control experiment
was carried out to verify (4). Module 1 (VOC = 15.4 V,
ISC = 0.46 A) in Fig. 9 is used and it operates under artifi-
cial light. A 800 X resistive load is connected to the output.
The battery voltage is 12.8 V initially. The results are re-
ported in Table 1. Fig. 11 shows the comparison between
experiment results, simulation results and theoretical calcu-
lations (operation in CCM only). In this case, when the
duty cycle is above 45% the theoretical calculation result
follows (7). When D is less than 45%, the converter is oper-
ating in DCM, and the input voltage to output voltage
relationship is governed by (27).
In order to verify the improvement in the system perfor-
mance by integrating a battery into the converter, two
types of systems have been simulated and compared.
Fig. 12 shows two conventional boost converters con-
nected in series, and close-loop feedback control being
applied to the converters. A boost converter topology is
selected to perform this comparison, because it is one of
the most reliable and widely used topologies; in (Lu and
Agelidis, 2009) a boost converter is also proven to be the
most efficient topology. The simulation result shows that
before the insolation condition changes, input voltage from
a PV module and output voltage from a boost converter
for both Module 1 and Module 2 are equal. After the mis-
match occurs, the short circuit current of the lower PV
module (blue line) drops to around 20%, the output volt-
ages of the two converters start to split. The green line
shows that the converter output voltage (Vout2) with the
shaded PV module, is continuously decreasing. When this
voltage becomes smaller than the MPP voltage, the global
MPP voltage cannot be achieved. The input voltage of
 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002 1999

Fig. 9. Series connected battery-integrated converter PV system.

Fig. 11. Comparison of calculation, simulation and experimental results.

The laboratory prototypes of the series-connected boost

converter and the battery-integrated boost converter, as
Fig. 10. Laboratory prototype battery integrated converter.
shown in Figs. 8 and 9, are tested under different insolation
levels respectively. Module 1 is under varying insolation.
Table 1 Different insolation levels are simulated by covering part
PV module voltage regulation experimental result. of the PV module and defined by the different value short
Duty ratio Vin Iin pin circuit current. Experiment results are shown in Tables 2
0.75 5.4 0.44 2.4 and 3. The experiment results show in good agreement with
0.70 6.7 0.43 2.9 the analysis and simulation results. The series-connected
0.65 8.2 0.43 3.6 boost converter will fail tracking MPP at a certain level
0.60 10.1 0.42 4.2
of shading and the battery integrated converter has a better
0.55 12.0 0.40 4.8
0.50 14.2 0.20 2.8 performance on tracking MPP. It is worth noting that, the
0.45 15.0 0.07 1.0 proposed battery-integrated converter fails to track MPP
0.40 15.0 0.06 0.9 at around 20% insolation level, the input voltage of Mod-
0.35 15.0 0.06 0.8 ule 1 is Vin2 = 11.5 V This is caused by the converter oper-
ation mode which was changed from CCM to DCM.
Module 2 (Vin2) starts to decrease. The previous analysis
has been verified by this simulation.
In comparison, because of the distributed energy stor- 5. System design considerations
age, the series connected battery-integrated boost converter
maintains constant input and output voltage all the time, as This paper focuses on the explanation of the battery
shown in Fig. 13. integrated boost converter operation principle, verifying
2000 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002

Fig. 12. Output voltage simulation result of series connected conventional boost converter under different insolation levels.

Fig. 13. Output voltage simulation result of series connected battery integrated converter under different insolation levels.

Table 2 Table 3
Conventional boost converter under varying insolation. Battery-integrated boost converter under varying insolation.
Insolation level Vin1 Vin2 Vout1 Vout2 Insolation level Vin1 Vin2 Vout1 Vout2
100% Isc = 0.6A 12.4 11.9 24.7 25.8 100% Isc = 0.6A 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
90% Isc 12.4 12.1 25.1 25.5 90% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
80% Isc 12.5 12.2 20.7 29.8 80% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
70% Isc 12.4 11.8 17.2 33.3 70% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
60% Isc 11.7 11.6 14.1 36.4 60% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
50% Isc 8.5 11.6 9.9 40.6 50% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
40% Isc 5.3 11.6 5.9 44.6 40% Isc 12.4 11.9 25.0 24.5
30% Isc 2.9 11.6 3.0 47.5 30% Isc 12.2 11.9 24.8 24.5
20% Isc 0.2 11.9 0.5 50.7 20% Isc 11.5 12.0 24.1 24.6

the feasibility and comparing with the conventional system,

however, for the sake of the interest of readers, the system
design considerations are briefly explained as follows:
5.1. System operation
As a complete grid connected system the second stage
DC/AC inverter is required. The ideal operation mode is:
 When there is no shading. The PV module output is at
maximum power. The power generated from the PV
module directly flows to the next stage without store
the energy in the battery.
 When partial shading happens as at one specific PV
module, its integrated battery will be discharged, output
voltage and power remaining stable.
 Y. Du, D.Dah-Chuan Lu / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1992–2002
 After the peak load time, the PV system starts to charge
the battery and outputs less power to the grid.
5.2. Control method
As shown by the analysis in section two, the switching of
the operation mode to charging and discharging depends
on the input and output power of the converter. The input
power to the converter is designed to be the maximum
power output from PV, which is uncontrollable. According
to (7), in order to make sure the PV operate at MPP the
duty cycle is approximately fixed. The only controllable
parameter is the DC/DC output equivalent resistance.
Since the DC string voltage Vstring is fixed, the output
power from the converter can be controlled by adjusting
this equivalent resistance. Specific devices may be used,
such as active charge equalization, to allocate the power
to the battery at a low state of charge (SOC) in the string.
5.3. Over-charge/discharge protection
Over-charge/discharge protection can be achieved by
controlling the power feed into the grid or disconnecting
the battery from the converter. Without the battery the
converter works as a conventional boost converter. The
operating conditions of other PV modules will not be
affected.
5.4. Inductor selection
The inductor should be designed to work in CCM since
the converters can control the input voltage under a wide
range of insolation. The experiment shows that when the
converter works in DCM, the control system will adjust
the duty cycle to its limit, i.e., 20% in this case, and yet
MPP is not achieved.
In order to calculate the appropriate inductance, one
has to substitute the parameters from Fig. 9 into (16).
The minimum input current Iin required of the converter
to work in CCM is 0.12 A, which is equal to 20% of the
short circuit current. This means that if a PV module has
been shaded more than 80%, the battery-integrated con-
verter will require a larger inductor or large duty cycle
range to guarantee MPPT.
6. Discussion
A logical counter argument is that extra batteries would
increase cost and require additional maintenance. However
the battery capacity designed in this paper is unnecessarily
large (Mulder et al., 2010). The function of the battery is to
cover the energy generation difference between the PV
modules in one string during partial shading. As grid is
available as a back-up, the battery should not necessarily
cope with a long period of low solar insolation.
2001
As shown in the paper, the proposed converter can
increase the power output from the PV module. The cus-
tomer can enjoy the financial benefits from this increase
from both the saving of peak load time, high electricity
charges and solar energy feed-in tariff. By minimizing the
aforementioned two limitations of a conventional con-
verter, the cost can be decreased.
Although the cost of a battery is still large, part of the
cost can be offset by using the proposed system. Local stor-
age solutions can be used for many new applications like
omitting over-voltage of the line and bridging periods dur-
ing power-line black-outs (Braun and Stetz, 2008). Since
2009 using self-consumption of PV energy is publicly
encouraged in Germany (Ministry of Environment,
2008). This can be realized by electric storage. The rapid
development of battery technology also can help to mini-
mize this limitation.
7. Conclusion
A steady state analysis of the battery-integrated boost
converter has been presented in this paper. Some advanta-
ges have been found by utilizing DMPPT configuration, in
comparison with series-connected conventional boost con-
verters. Simulation and experiment results have shown that
the energy storage integrated converter can increase the PV
system power output. System design considerations and the
trade-off of using batteries have also been briefly discussed.
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