1ST-ORDER CIRCUITS DRIVEN BY A PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATOR

The study of the dynamic behaviour of circuits containing one or more energy-storing elements is of considerable importance to the engineer. The dynamic response of linear first-order circuits, when subjected to conventional forcing functions, has been well established employing classical techniques. However, up to now, the corresponding response of these circuits, when driven by a photovoltaic (PV) generator, has not received special attention in the literature. Since a PV array constitutes a special power source, due to the extreme non-linear i-v external characteristics, it can be expected that its transient response will be different from that obtained with conventional power sources. Using a linear or piecewise-linear representation of the i-v characteristic one obtains a first approximation to the problem. In this paper, an approach is outlined, based on an incremental model of the PV generator, suitable for description of transient behaviour both quantitatively and qualitatively.