An ATP Model for Photovoltaic Module Considering the Temperature Dependence

Abstract

ATP (Alternative Transients Program) is a widely used simulation program for the electric power network. It provides the Shockley diode component that allows the user to quickly build a photovoltaic (PV) module model that can be used for simulation of an electric grid containing solar power generators. However, the diode parameters are inputted through a dialog window and cannot be varied during the simulation, which limits the program's performance of simulating cases where the PV module temperature undergoes variations. This paper proposes a method to solve this shortcoming by inserting a temperature-compensated current source in the existing equivalent circuit of PV module. Results obtained by the proposed model and by the analytical calculation are compared for validation.