Indian Institute of Science

Design of Photovoltaic Systems

Prof. L. Umanand
Department of Electronic Systems Engineering
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

NPTEL Online Certification Course

(Refer Slide Time: 00:17)

Let us simulate two PV cells in series, let us take the case of two identical PV cells in series. I
have captured the circuit in a gschem schematic and this is the schematic. This part here is one
PV cell and this is another PV cell. So I have name this one as PV cell one, it is having the
insulation source, it is current source 1 Amp, there is a diode D1 and shunt resistance and the
series resistance. Likewise for PV cell 2 there is an insulation current source I p2 one amp same
value D2 and R shunt and R series come into the picture.

So this cell is connected in series to this and the terminals of where the load is connected is
across this point where we have connected voltage source which is sine varying source which is
suppose to provide the X access sweep. I have named the node as nVt for the output terminal,
nVt2 for the terminal which measures the terminal voltage for cell two the bottom cell. If you
have to find the terminal voltage for the top cell which is the PV cell 1 it is nVt – nVt 2. I have
included here the spece include directive, the file is pv.sub, in that one, inside that one is diode
model, default diode model which is suppose to handle these diodes D1 and D2. So we are ready
with the schematic let us generate the netlist and simulate using a Ngspecie.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:26)

Let me go to the simulation project folder which is pvsim, there are three file that you will see
here series.sch, this is the schematic file that we just now saw. series.cir this is the circuit file
which contain the analysis. pv.sub, which was referred in series.sch through this spice directive.
This contains nothing but the diode model default diode model. series.cir actually has the
transient analysis statement and an include statement for including the netlist series.net which we
have not at generated we will just that now.

There is the series of control statements. One is to set the background as white and to set the
foreground as black then the run comment so that is put in to the control statement. Now let us
generate the netlist file and then go in to Ngspice. For that first open the terminal window go the
project sub folder. So we have all the relevant files here. I have here the netlist generation
command gnetlist dash g spice dash sdb output to series.net from the input series.sch (gnetlist -g
spice-sdb -o series.net series.sch). So this will generate the netlist you can come back here and
see that the netlist is generated and then now call Ngspice series.cir.

So we are in Ngspice, Ngspice use the run command which was there in the dot control
statement, you can check the display and see that these are the vectors available for you to plot.
Now we can plot and see the results, what is see that you would like to plot. You could open the
schematic file so that it becomes a bit more easy for you to understand the variable that you are
plotting. Now let us say we would like to plot the current through this output source where is
high and the node voltage across this that is the terminal voltage.

How does it look like? So let us plot current V0 through the V0 source versus nvt. So we get a
plot look like this. So you rather than seeing a single plot, we can see group of plots which will
give you a kind of a relative idea of the various things. So let me quit this. Let us plot the I versus
V characteristic of the PV cell 1, PV cell 2 and the overall set. Plot i v0 versus nvt would give
you the I versus V characteristic of the overall result in PV module and then i v0 versus nVt 2
would give you the IV characteristic of the PV cell 2 and i v0 versus nvt – nvt2 would give you
the iv characteristic of PV cell 1. Now plot that will get this maximize that and you will see that
you have this characteristic.

You see this line, the blue line actually this is having two lines, one is the orange and the other
one is the blue, this is high there is I versus V for the two cells, they are identical cells. And the
red one is for the resultant cell and that is what you are seeing here, which matches with our
theory. Now let us plot the power versus voltage curve for the three items, which is power versus
voltage for cell 1 power versus voltage for cell 2 and then for the combination.

So let us now plot i v0, the i current is same for all, because they are currented in series, same for
all the three components, x what say nvt for the overall cell versus nvt and the next plot will be i
v0 x nvt2 for the pv cell 2 versus nvt, the same X axis. i v0 x (nvt – nvt 2) would be the voltage
across cell one versus nvt.

So this will give you the power versus voltage curves for the three cells, you see them here. So
you see that the blue one power versus voltage for cell one and also cell 2 also orange
superimposed and the red curve is the power versus voltage curve for the series combination.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:43)

I have here, the circuit of two modules connected in series. Now this is module one, this module
one contains five PV cells and these five PV cells are identical, all having one amp insulation
current sources ,they are connected in series, and there is another module, module 2 and they are
also connected in series not all are identical you have two of them having one amp current source
and three of them having 0.7 amp current source, indicating that these PV cells have partial
shading.
Now this module 2 and this module 1 are connected in series to the external load, in this case
external load is the voltage source which is acting as a sweep.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:41)

If you look at the simulation project folder, you have three familiar files series.sch, is the
schematic file which we just now saw, series.cir is the circuit file which contain the analysis
statements and pv.sub contains the diode model default diode model in this case which is refer in
series.sch through the spice into directive. Now if you want to have a look at the series.cir, I have
here the transient analysis statement and there is an include statement which includes the
series.net list file, this is the net list file which we will generate shortly and there are the control
statements where the first two are to set the back ground as white and black and then run you
will run the simulation automatically then plot.

So plot i versus v, i versus i x v, so this is a power versus v, power of the combined system
versus v, power of module one versus v power of module 2 versus v. I have scaled i versus v so
that you have a much more nice looking graph. So, I am going to the terminal window, let us
generate the net list first. We execute this, we see now that there is a netlist which has come in
and now we call ngspice series.cir and execute that you see that it was executed and then you
maximize the graph, you will see all the graphs that we have plot we have included in the control
statement.

Now look at these, i that is the current flowing through the external load, so that is this red line
versus v and this orange line is i x nvt – nvt2, which is the voltage across module one, so this
would be the power of the module one which is the orange line this is the orange line. And the
green line is the power of module 2, that is this the one which is weaker and has partial shading
and the green one is the net power of the combined cells.

So you will see that, it agrees very much with the discussion that we have had previously.
Observe that module 1 is always in quadrant one which is sourcing throughout. Observe that the
green line crosses from sourcing to sinking at this point, so here all this places the power is
positive, module 2 is acting as source. Here the power is 0 and it crosses over, power becomes
negative and here it is sinking it is acting like a dissipater.

Now let us see what happens if we put the protective diode and try to remove this portion this
negative portion of the power. This is the same circuit of two modules connected in series, there
is one modification that I have made and that is this diode I have included this bypass diode here
to protect module 2 whenever module 2 tries to go negative that is operating in a sink mode.
Now let us go the terminal, let us now generate the netlist and let us go to ngspecie and going to
its environment .cir, you will see that the simulation is executed and you see now this set of
graphs along with the protection diode.

Observe that the green line which is the power curve of module 2 and as it tries to negative it
gets clamped, of course the diode is not ideal so it gets clamped to the forward voltage, observe
also the shape of this curve it is as per our discussion. Observe that the power curve for the entire
system series system is having two bumps and it is not single, it is not a single hill or single
bumped power curve.