A Photovoltaic System Model For Matlab/Simulink

Simulations
Cemal Keles, B. Baykant Alagoz, Murat Akcin, Asim Kaygusuz, Abdulkerim Karabiber
Electrical Electronics Engineering Department
Inonu University
Malatya, Turkey
cemal.keles@inonu.edu.tr
Abstract Solar energy maintains life on the earth and it is an
infinite source of clean energy. There is an increasing trend for
the use of solar cells in industry and domestic appliances because
solar energy is expected to play significant role in future smart
grids as a distributed renewable source. Optimal and large-scale
integration of renewable sources into smart grid is possible by the
aid of computer simulations and hence there is a growing
demand for computer modeling and simulation of renewable
sources. This study presents a generalized photovoltaic (PV)
system simulation model for Matlab/Simulink simulation
environment. The proposed model is based on a behavioral cell
model for modeling solar radiance to electricity conversion and
an electrical driver interface for implementing electrical
characteristic of power limited systems in power simulations. The
model is efficient in computational complexity and it is easy to
configure for representing wide-range of PV installations.
Keywords-solar energy; photovoltaic cell; photovoltaic module;
simulink; smart grid

I.

INTRODUCTION

Among several renewable energy resources, energy

harvesting from the photovoltaic (PV) effect is the most
essential and sustainable way because of abundance and easyaccessibility of solar radiant energy around the earth. In spite of
the intermittency of sunlight, solar energy is widely available
during daylight and it is free to use. Recently, photovoltaic
system is recognized to be in the forefront in renewable electric
power generation because it can generate direct current
electricity without heavy environmental impacts and
contamination [1].
PV modules are the fundamental power conversion unit of
a PV generator system. The output characteristics of PV
modules depend on the solar insolation, the cell temperature
and the output voltage of the PV module [2]. Since PV
modules exhibit nonlinear electrical characteristics, designing
and simulation of this system require reliable PV modeling.
Moreover, mathematical modeling of PV module is
continuously updated to enable researcher to have a better
understanding of its working [3].
Many researchers have been proposed several models for
Matlab/Simulink in the literature. Tsai et al. proposed a model
taking sunlight irradiance and cell temperature as input
parameters [1]. Salmi et al. proposed a model of PV cell based
on the fundamental circuit for a solar PV cell considering the
effects of physical and environmental parameters [2]. Tsai

developed a novel model of PV module using Matlab/Simulink

and this model was verified for an experiment structure. Author
also underlined the effect of solar irradiation on cell
temperature, which made the output characteristics more
practical [4]. Altas et al. developed Matlab/Simulink PV model
using basic circuit equations of the PV solar cells including the
effects of solar irradiation and temperature changes. They
tested the model response in a DC load and an inverter
simulation [5].
There is an increasing trend for domestic use of hybrid
renewable sources, preferably wind and solar combination.
Hence there is need for simulation models of the wind turbine
and PV modules to efficiently design and integrate these
sources to power systems. Nowadays, smart grid researchers
demand wind turbines and PV panel models to deploy in their
power system simulations as distributed generators and explore
impacts of distributed generation on power distribution. These
models should also represent the transient responses of
renewable energy sources for stability and reliability analyses.
Matlab/Simulink provides a user-friendly, modular and
visual simulation environment for the transient analysis of
power electronics. This environment facilitates design and
simulation of the power systems and it is very convenient to
perform transient analyses for the academic and industrial
proposes. Although there are wind turbine models in
SimPowerSystems library of Simulink, a general purpose PV
module component working in conjunction with power
electronic circuit are still needed [1]. The PV modules used for
transient simulations of large-scale renewable source
integration should not only be reconfigurable for wide-range of
panel models but also present low-computational complexity in
grid simulations due to the memory and calculation time
limitation of computers. Recent PV models have low
computational complexity [5] or electrical characteristics well
suiting for PV modules [1].
This study aims to developed a general propose Simulink
PV module. This module can be easily reconfigurable for the
electrical response of PV panels in a wide spectrum. For this
propose, a modified sigmoid function was used to approximate
electrical characteristics of PV panels, empirically. This gains
the module considerable degree of freedom to represent diverse
PV systems. The proposed PV model is composed of a
behavioral PV block, based on electro-physics of the PV cell,
and a power-limited electrical driver module, characterized by
the modified sigmoid function. The behavioral PV block

calculates voltage and current of PV module for a given solar

radiance and panel temperature. Then, the power-limited
electrical driver block receives the voltage and current values
from the behavioral PV block and it injects an electrical power
to electrical load appropriate to I-V characteristics of PV cells.
II.

Id

Ish

Iph

Rsh

Icell

IL

Vcell

RL

METHODOLOGY

Fig. 1 shows the top-level block diagram of the proposed

PV module. The first block, reffered as to behavioural PV
model, performs theoritical calculations based on physics of
the PV cell and it yields nominal values of voltage and current
generated by the panel. The second block electrically drives to
the electrical load according to the limited power I-V
characteristics. Depending on the load value, the voltage drop
over load (VL) and the load current (IL) are adjusted according
to maximum power provided by PV panel. The maximum
power point (MPP), namely the peak power, is limited by
approximately Pm VmIm.
PV Simulation Model
Behavioural
PV Model

Rs

PV cell

Vm,Im

VL
Power-limited
Electrical Driver

IL

Load

Figure 1. Block diagram of PV simulation model.

A. Behavioral PV Modeling
The physics of the PV cell is very similar to that of the
classical diode with a pn junction [6]. When the junction
absorbs light, the energy of absorbed photons is transferred to
the electron-proton system of the material, creating charge
carriers that are separated at the junction [7]. An ideal PV cell
is assumed to have no series loss and no leakage to ground.
However, due to its non-ideal structure in nature, there are
some losses occurred in real PV cells. Therefore, these losses
are expressed by using resistances in equivalent circuits. Fig. 2
shows an equivalent electrical circuit modeling the complex
physics of the PV cells [8-10]. The behavioral model of the
proposed PV model is based on this equivalent electrical circuit
model. Current source, Iph, which is a current produced by the
photons, is constant at a fixed value of radiation and
temperature. The shunt resistance, Rsh, is used to represent the
shunt-leakage current, Ish. The series resistance, Rs, is used to
represent the voltage drop at the output. PV power conversion
efficiency (PPCE) is sensitive to small changes at Rs, but the
PPCE is not sensitive to changes at Rsh. The small increase in
Rs significantly reduces the output of the PV module [8]. In the
equivalent circuit, the current, Icell, delivered to the external
load equals the current IL and voltage over the load equals the
voltage of PV cell, Vcell [2,9]. Current and voltage of PV panel
depends on load value and presents nonlinear, power limited
electrical characteristics.

Figure 2. Equivalent electrical circuit model of PV cells.

The Equation (1) describing output current of the non-ideal

PV cell was derived using Kirchhoffs current law as follows
[11]:

I cell = I ph I d I sh

(1)

The overall current, which the PV cell can provide, was

formulated by Equation (2), where G and Gr are active and the
reference radiation, Tc and Tcr are module temperature and
reference temperature of the module, respectively [11].
Producers usually provide electrical specifications of the PV
module at standard conditions, namely solar radiation of 1000
W/m2 and cell temperature of 25oC. These values correspond to
Gr and Tcr, respectively [11].

G
I cell = I r +
Gr

G

(Tc Tcr ) +
1 I sc

Gr

(2)

The parameter Isc represents short circuit current of the

module and is the temperature coefficient of short circuit
current. The voltage of PV cell was formulated by Equation (3)
and Equation (4) [11], where are temperature coefficient of
open circuit voltage.
Vcell = (Tc Tcr ) Rs I + Vr

G
I =
Gr

G

(Tc Tcr ) +
1 I sc

Gr

(3)
(4)

Herein, Rs is used to represent the voltage drop at the output

of the PV cell. The parameters Ir and Vr are reference values
taken from I-V curve [12, 13].
PV module is formed by connecting PV cell in series and
parallel to each other. In this case, the output current and
voltage of PV module is expressed in Equation (5) and
Equation (6), respectively.
Vm = N scVcell

(5)

I m = N pc I cell

(6)

Herein, Vm is the output voltage, and Im is the output

current. Nsc and Npc are expressed numbers of series and
parallel connected PV cells, respectively [11]. Simulink
schema of behavioral PV model, using the Equation (2) and
Equation (3), is demonstrated in Fig. 3.

Vr

u[1]*Nsc

1
Vm

u[1]*beta
beta*(Tc -Tcr)
25

Rs

Peak point (MMP) of power-limited I-V characteristic is

apparent in Fig. 4(b). The parameter is used to adjust
decline of panel voltage Vg against the increase of load current
IL.

Ref. temperature
1

u[1]*Npc

temperature

2
radiation

Deltai

u[1]/1000

u[1]*alfa

G/Gr

alfa*G/Gr

2
Im

Ir

Isc

Figure 3. Behavioral PV model simulink schema.

B. Power-limited Electrical Driver Modeling

In order to implement PV panel power limits, calculated by
the current and voltages values of behavioral model, in the
power system, there is need for an electrical driver component
that exhibits an I-V characteristic complying with the response
of PV panels.

Fig. 5 shows simulink model of the power limited

electrical driver. Equation (7) governs the voltage controlled
voltage source that is connect to load via an internal resistor,
Ri. Here, the internal resistor Ri resistance between metal
contacts of silicon layers and panel output ports. Ci represents
internal capacitance caused from capasitive structures in the
panel and it is used to configure transient responce of PV
module. Internal resistor and capacitor defines a time constant
for the modeling transient regime of PV panel, which can be
expressed as =(Ri //RL)Ci. The load current is measured from
the output of panel and provides a feedback for Equation (7).
Ri
s

i
-

IL
1

temperature

1
V+

Vm

temperature

1
Ci

Power-limited electrical driving of the electrical loads is

implemented in the form of modified sigmoid function given
by Equation (7). This function can approximate to limited
power I-V characteristic of PV panels as illustrated in Fig. 4(a)
and Fig. 4(b). Maximum power point of the Equation (7)
approximates to value of Pm VmIm, where Im and Vm are
calculated by the behavioral model. Voltage drop between
surface of PV silicon layers (Vg) is adjusted according to the
load current IL. When IL current exceeds the theoretical PV
current Im, Vg voltage exhibits sharp decreases and thus limits
the power injection to the load as in Fig. 4.

Vg =

Vm

(7)

1 + e ( I L I m )

radiation

Im

eu

radiation
PVModul

2
20

V-

Figure 5. The simulink model of electrical driver.

III.

PV MODULE SIMULATION EXAMPLES

This section illustrates PV module simulation examples.

The module parameters were largely configured according to
Solarex MSX60 specifications for solar radiation of 1000
W/m2 and cell temperature of 25oC. Parameter settings are
listed in Table 1.

(a)
TABLE I.
0.6

Module Parameters

0.4
0.2

Power-limited Working Region of

Electrical Driver

0
0.5

1.5

(b)

0.8

0.6

PARAMETER SETTINGS USED PV MODULE IN SIMULATIONS

Pm VmI m

MMP

0.4
0.2
0.5

1.5

Figure 4. I-V characteristic in (a) and P-V characteristic in (b) by Equation

(7) for Im=0.5, Vm=1.5, and =20. Maximum power point is indicated by
MMP.

Reference Voltage (Vr)

Reference Current (Ir )
Short circuit current temperature coefficient ()
Open circuit voltage temperature coefficient ()
Short circuit current (Isc)
Serial resistance (Rs)
Internal resistor (Ri)
Internal capacitance (Ci)

Values

17.1 V
3.5 A
3.10-3 mA/oC
-73.10-3 mW/oC
3.8
0.47 Ohm
1 Ohm
1.10-2 F

A. Tests for Constant Resistive Load

Fig. 6 shows a Simulink simulation of the proposed PV
module connected to a DC resistive load. The load resistor RL
was set to 4.5 Ohm for working nearby MPP. A reference
radiation (G) of 1000 W/m2 and module temperature (Tc) of
25oC were used in the simulation. The internal resistor Ri and
capacitor Ci were set to 1 Ohm and 10-2 F, respectively.
Transient response of PV module, when connected to the
resistive load, is illustrated in Fig. 7 (a), (b), and (c). Voltage
and current of the load are settled to its steady state value after
roughly 0.05 second transient regime. Settling time can be

(a)

adjusted by Ci and Ri. Adjustment of transient response of PV

module is, particularly, useful for voltage and power stability
analyses of power systems supplied by PV panels. Power
injected the load by PV module was reached to its steady state
operating conditions after development of transient regime.
This allows more realistic analysis of PV panels in power
system simulation.

MMP
40

30
20
10

Discrete,
Ts = 5e-005 s.
pow ergui

temperature

i
-

Current

V+

temperature

+
v
-

Load

Voltage
2

radiation

8
RL
(b)

10

V-

12

14

MMP

radiation

40

Simulink PV Model

Figure 6. Simulink simulation of PV module for a DC load.

(a)

IL

PL

30

20

10
5

0.1

0.2
Second

0.3

10
15
VL
Figure 8. (a) Power injection versus load resistance characteristics.
Maxsimum power point is tracked at 4.5 Ohm load resistance. (b) Power
injection versus of load voltage characteristics. Maxsimum power point is
tracked at 14 Volt load voltage.

(b)
14
12

10
8
6
4
2
0

0.1

0.2
Second

0.3

(c)

50
40

B. Solar Power For Three Phase AC Power Distribution

Simulation
Simulink simulation of a PV array supplying three phase
AC distribution system is shown in Fig. 9. The DC/AC
converter with pulse wide modulated three arms IGBT
inverter causes DC instability due to periodical switching of
PV module current. In order to reduce negative impacts of
possible reverse current of DC/AC converter on PV module, a
diode is used. Output of PV module is connected to DC/AC
converter to supply 1000 Watt resistive loads per phase. In
order to draw adequate power from PV module, 10 numbers of
series and 5 numbers of parallel cells structure (Nsc =10 and
Npc =5) were configured for the PV module.
Discrete,
Ts = 5e-005 s.
powergui

Cur

20

i
-

Current
25

V-

Va-

Measurement

V+

10

Va+

V+

PL

30

DC V +
B

Diod
1000

0.1

0.2
Second

0.3

Figure 7. Current [A] in (a), Voltage [V] in (b) and Power [W] in (c) of PV
module for a load resistance of 4.5 Ohm.

Fig. 8 (a) and (b) demostrates power injection of PV module

for various values of load and load voltages. MMP points
indicates power limits of PV modules. This is very useful for
testing MPP tracking methods in Matlab/Simulink.

V-

DC V -

Ra

DC/AC Converter
PV Model

Rb

Rc

Figure 9. Simulink simulation of a PV array supplying three phase AC

distribution.

Fig. 10 (a) and (b) show DC voltage (VP) supplied from

PV module and average magnitude of the power (PL) drawn

from PV module. Fig. 10(c) shows line to neutral AC voltages

measured from resistive loads. After a transient regime
continuing 0.1 second, average power drawn from PV module
goes into steady regime and settles roughly at 3000 Watt.
(a)

4000

Nowadays, solar energy integration in microgrids [14, 15]

is becoming primary concern of power system industry.
Modeling renewable energy sources for a large-scale power
system integration simulation is more important today,
because these simulation tools will be a part of optimal design
and intelligent management process.

3000
2000 Transient
Regime

estimates voltage and current potential of PV panel for a given

solar radiation (G) and module temperature (Tc) conditions.
The powerlimited electrical driver implements a relevant
electrical response on the load. The proposed PV module can
be employed in transient analysis of power system supplied
with PV panels. It is also useful for testing MPP tracking
methods.

Steady State Regime

1000

REFERENCES
0

0.2

150

0.4
0.6
Second
(b)

0.8

[1]

[2]

[3]

100

[4]

50

[5]

[6]

0.2

500

0.4
0.6
Second
(c)

0.8

1
[7]
[8]

V -V -V

[9]

[10]

-500
0.306

0.308

0.31
0.312
Second

0.314

Figure 10. (a) output voltage of PV module (VP ), (b) average magnitude of
power injected from PV module to DC/AC converter ( PL), (c) Three phase
line to neutral voltage (Va -Vb -Vc ).

IV.

CONCLUSION

In summary, this study presents a general purposes PV

simulation module and its application examples in
Matlab/Simulink simulation environment. This PV model is
easy to configure for a desired PV response characteristics and
it directly connects to SimPowerSystems electrical circuit for
transient response analyses. The PV module has two main
parts: A behavioral model of PV cells and a powerlimited
electrical driver for circuit connection. The behavioral model

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

H.L. Tsai, C.S. Tu, and Y.J. Su, Development of generalized

photovoltaic model using Matlab/Simulink, Proceedings of the World
Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2008, WCECS08, San
Francisco, USA.
T. Salmi, M. Bouzguenda,A. Gastli, and A. Masmoudi,
Matlab/Simulink based modelling of solar photovoltaic cell, Int J of
Renewable Energy Research 2012, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 213218.
N. Pandiarajan, and R. Muthu, Mathematical modeling of photovoltaic
module with simulink, 1st International Conference on Electrical
Energy Systems ICEES11, 2011; pp. 258263.
H.L. Tsai, Insolation-oriented model of photovoltaic module using
Matlab/Simulink, Solar Energy 2010, vol. 84, pp. 13181326.
I.H. Altas, and A.M. Sharaf, A photovoltaic array simulation model for
Matlab-Simulink GUI environment, International Conference on Clean
Electrical Power 2007, ICCEP07, Capri, pp. 341345.
H. Patel, and V. Agarwal. Matlab-based modeling to study the effects of
partial shading on PV array characteristics. IEEE Trans on Energy
Conversion 2008, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 302310.
M.R. Patel, Wind and Solar Power Systems 1998, CRC Press, USA,
351p.
M.R. Patel, Wind and Solar Power Systems: Design, Analysis, and
Operation 2005, CRC Press, Second Edition, USA, 472p.
P. Maffezzoni, L. Codecasa, and D. DAmore, Modeling and
simulation of a hybrid photovoltaic module equipped with a heatrecovery system, IEEE Trans on Industrial Electronics 2009, vol. 56,
no. 11, pp. 43114318.
R. Ramaprabha, B. Mathur, K. Santhosh, and S. Sathyanarayanan,
Matlab based modelling of SPVA characterization under reverse bias
condition, Third International Conference on Emerging Trends in
Engineering and Technology 2012, IETET12, Kurukshetra, Haryana,
India, pp. 334339.
R.P. Vengatesh, and S.E. Rajan, Investigation of cloudless solar
radiation with PV module employing Matlab-Simulink, International
Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical and Computer Technology
2011, ICETECT11, pp. 141147.
S. Nema, R.K. Nema RK, and G. Agnihotri, Matlab/simulink based
study of photovoltaic cells/modules/array and their experimental
verification, International Journal of Energy and Environment 2010,
vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 487500.
S. Kim , and M.J. Youn, Variable-structure observer for solar array
current estimation in a photovoltaic power-generation system, IEE
Proceedings-Electric Power Applications 2005, vol. 152, no. 4, pp. 953
959.
A, Karabiber, C. Keles, A. Kaygusuz, and B.B. Alagoz, An approach
for the integration of renewable distributed generation in hybrid DC/AC
microgrids, Renewable Energy 2013, vol. 52, pp. 251259.
J. Paska, P. Biczel, and M. K1os, Hybrid power systems An effective
way of utilising primary energy sources, Renewable Energy 2009, vol.
34, pp. 24142421.