Speed Control of Induction Motor Driving a Pump Supplied by a Photovoltaic Array

Abstract

The integration of renewable energies in electrical systems is a research area that is becoming more and more important. In this context, this work aims regulation of induction motor speed that drives a pump supplied by a photovoltaic array. The objective of this study is to calculate the reference speed corresponding to the maximum power supplied by the photovoltaic generator at each climate change and control the motor to achieve it. The system is formed by a boost converter and a three-phase inverter connected to a three-phase LC filter. Numerical management, including the maximum power point algorithm of type "perturbs and observe" to control the boost converter and sinusoidal pulse width modulation of variable frequency to control the inverter is used. The sinusoidal pulse width modulation frequency is given by the PI regulator that compares motor speed with reference speed. The reference speed is calculated through a program based on climate changes and photovoltaic maximum power. The program is implemented as a Matlab function block. The simulation results show that the PV output voltage and current converge to values corresponding to the maximum power. The motor speed follows the reference speed which approves the good functioning of the PI regulator.