PROPOSAL OF SIZING AND SELECTING OF ELECTRICAL TOPOLOGIES TO A GRID-CONNECTED PV SYSTEM BASED ON AMOUNT OF ACHIEVED COMPLIANCES

Abstract

This work is related to the design of a PV system connected to the grid-utiliy in order to achieve the largest possible number of conformities according to the design criteria. In addition to the conceptual differences between the electrical and physical topologies of a PV system, the reasons for achieving a technically and correct sizing are also presented. Although there is several design methodologies related to the electrical topology of a PV system, many of them are redundant and they result in a large number of possible configurations which stickles the designer’s selection. In this context, this work proposes a design method, selection and classification of electrical topologies based on the number of achieved compliances that could constitute a grid-connected photovoltaic system. A hypothetical 34 kWp PV system is adopted as a reference to illustrate the calculation procedures and the technical reasons defined to the selection criteria. In order to validate the proposed design, from an amount of 54 electrical topologies previously selected by traditional methods of sizing, only 3 of them were identified by this proposed method as those serving the largest number of compliances defined by the designer. The calculation steps of the proposed method are discussed separately and presented in a sequence that stimulates its reuse, with and without adaptations to other configurations of PV systems. By this, the authors hope to contribute to a better understanding of people interested on that area of research and especially at a refined sizing method of PV systems connected to the grid-utility.