Fault ride-through and power smoothing system

1. A fault ride-through and power smoothing system, comprising:

a photovoltaic (PV) array;

a DC-DC buck converter in operable communication with the PV array, the DC-DC buck converter having an output and a duty cycle control input;

an incremental conductance circuit for continuously adjusting the duty cycle of the DC-DC buck converter under varying irradiation and temperature for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of the PV array to instantly locate maximum voltage or maximum current to obtain maximum power output from the PV array;

a DC-link capacitor connected to the buck converter output and supplying a constant DC voltage, V DC ;

a supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS);

a buck-boost converter connected across the DC-link capacitor, the SCESS being connected to the buck-boost converter;

a buck-boost converter controller circuit connected to the buck-boost converter for controlling the buck-boost converter to charge the SCESS and to maintain the constant DC voltage, V DC , across the DC-link capacitor during a fault; and

a voltage source converter (VSC) having an input connected to the DC-link capacitor and having an output adapted for connection to an AC power grid or an AC load, the VSC including:

a two-level, three-phase power inverter;

an ABC to DQ converter connected to the power inverter; and

a P-Q inverter controller circuit for controlling the power inverter,

wherein, during the fault, power stored in the SCESS is made available to the DC-link capacitor and transferred to either an AC load or to the main grid to ride through the fault and smooth power of the system.

2. The fault ride-through and power smoothing system according to claim 1 , wherein said buck-boost converter controller circuit comprises:

a first control loop having a summer, the summer having an input including a reference voltage input, V DCref , and an inverting input including the constant DC voltage supplied by the DC-link capacitor, V DC , the first control loop further having a first PI controller accepting the sum of V DCref and −V DC and providing a reference super capacitor current, I SCref , at an output of the first PI controller;

a second control loop in cascade with the first control loop, the second control loop having a summer having an input including the reference super capacitor current, I SCref , and having an inverting input receiving the actual inductor current of the buck-boost converter, I SC , the second control loop having a second PI controller accepting the sum of I SCref and −I SC and having a control signal, V s , at an output of the second PI controller; and

means for comparing a triangular wave with the output control signal, V s , to generate firing pulses to the buck-boost converter.

3. The fault ride-through and power smoothing system according to claim 2 , wherein the reference supercapacitor current, I SCref , is characterized in Laplace transform by the relation,

I

SCref

=

(

V

DCref

-

V

DC

)

*

(

k

PO

+

k

IO

s

)

,

and the control signal, V s , is characterized in Laplace transform by the relation,

V

S

=

(

I

SCref

-

I

SC

)

*

(

k

PI

+

k

II

s

)

,

where K PI and K PO are the proportional constants for the buck boost converter, and K II and K IO are the integral constants for the buck boost converter.