Performance evaluation of photovoltaic grid connected shunt active power filter

Abstract

This paper describes the performance of photovoltaic (PV) Generator connected to a grid with shunt active power filter (APF). The PV system utilises perturb and observe maximum power point tracking algorithm to extract maximum power from the sun and injecting the same to the grid. Shunt active power filter (SAPF) is used to reduce the harmonics present in the photovoltaic generation based on PQ modified theory. The control algorithm and regulation of voltage source multilevel inverter (MLI) functioning as a harmonic filter uses the pulse width modulation (PWM) technique. PQ theory identifies the currents of references, which provides possibility for controlling the currents injected at the point of common coupling (PCC). Regulator is used to determine DC link voltage of PWM control inverter. Two switching schemes namely; Sinusoidal PWM and pseudo random carrier PWM have been applied and the performance results of both techniques have been studied. The simulations have been completed using MATLAB/Simulink software and the result shows that improvement in power quality and power factor for the pseudo random PWM technique is quite large than sinusoidal PWM.