,&3'(1

Parameter Estimation of Double Diode

Photo-Voltaic Module
Paramjit Saha , Saurabh Kumar , Dr. Sisir Kr. Nayak , and Himanshu Sekhar Sahu
Student,

Electrical Engineering
NERIST, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh- 791109. Email: sahaparamjit@live.com
Student, Electrical and Electronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Sikkim- 737139.
Assistant Professor, EEE Department, Indian Institute of Technology
Guwahati, Assam 781-039 Email: sknayak@iitg.ernet.in
Research Scholar, EEE Department, Indian Institute of Technology
Guwahati, Assam 781-039. Email: himanshu.sahu@iitg.ernet.in
AbstractSolar Energy is a clean and boundless energy
source and the worldwide solar market demand is increasing for
industrial and domestic purposes. The purpose of this paper is to
show the comparison of Stochastic Method(Genetic Algorithm)
over derivative methods. A mathematical development [3] is
provided for the extraction of Solar Panel equivalent circuit
parameters from datasheet values. The analytical approach is
selected for the mathematical development as the initial-point
vital for proper evaluation of the Parameters of the double
diode Model of PV cells. And thus using Evolutionary technique
to extract the values of the parameters, a valid comparison
has been presented between the numerical approaches and the
Evolutionary Algorithms.
KeywordsParameter Extraction, Double Diode, Newton Raphson, Genetic Algorithm. Parameter Extraction, Double Diode,
Newton Raphson, Genetic Algorithm. .

I.

I NTRODUCTION

Today the rate of consumption of earths energy resources

are at alarming speed which includes conventional fossil-based
fuels. Moreover, the supply of such conventional fuels has
reached a higher level of uncertainty which has resulted a need
for more reliable and sustainable energy-resources. The energy
resources is expected to be sustainable, and exist in great
abundance with the least amount of environmental impact.
Solar Energy provides one such option and demonstrates all
the required characteristics. One of the popular methods of
extracting Solar energy is Photo-voltaic technology. In this,
solar energy is directly converted to electrical energy. This,
phenomenon, to directly convert electromagnetic radiation
to electrical energy is known as the photo-voltaic effect.
Commercial production of PV cells began in the 1950s, when
Bell Laboratories developed the rst commercially available
solar cell. Until the 1970s, the only application of the PV
technology was in spacecrafts. But, in the last few decades,
decrease in the price of commercially available PV modules
as well incentives by governments around the world have
resulted in very fast growth in the use of PV systems.

II.

L ITERATURE R EVIEW

In this paper, a mathematical approach is followed for

the equation to nd out the desired parameters [3]. Initially Newton-Raphson has been applied for the PV module
(KC200GT) which is a derivative method and follows the cost
function upto a certain limit. The Newton-Raphson if applied
without any relevant intial point, then the function may either
fall to a local minima or may become undened. So therby we
require a better process which can overcome these drawbacks.
Hence an evolutionary Algorithm, Genetic Algorithm, has been
employed. Genetic Algorithm has a benecial quality of not
falling into any local minima of the objective function and also
it can be applied to any noisy and rough cost function where
the derivative processes cannot be applied. Also if the problem
is Multi-dimensional, Non-differential, Non-continuous, and
Non-parametrical [16], then Genetic Algorithm can be used
as it is independent of the error surface. Thus a comparison of
I V characteristics of PV Module has been made between the
mathematical approach and the stochastic method as a result
of the benets of GA over derivative methods.
III.

PV C ELL M ODELLING

Photovoltaic Cell is the fundamental building block of

PV systems. These PV cells are made up of semiconductor
materials which converts solar energy into electricity. In
this semiconductor device (PV-Cells), the solar radiation
causes the energy to rise above the band-gap energy and thus
electron-hole pair is created. It is this electric elds force
that pushes electrons in one direction (n-side) and holes in
the other direction (p-side). The accumulation of holes on
the p-side and electrons on the n-side creates a potential
difference (voltage), which is used to pass an electric current
through the load.
There are different circuit models that can be used to
simulate PV cells. One of the simplest models is single-diode
model, where the cell is modeled as a current source caused
due to the photo-electric effect of solar irradiance in parallel
with a diode having a series and parallel resistance which
depicts that Solar Cell work both as Current and Voltage
Source. But rather than using a single diode model the double

,(((

diode model has been used in this paper.

B. NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE-NEWTON RAPHSON

A. Double-Diode Model

From, [3] analytical and numerical approach has been

implemented for PV-module KC200GT where only 5
parameters have been taken as unknown (Rs , Rsh , Is1 , Is2
and Iph ) considering the diffusion and recombination diode
ideality factor as 1 and 2 respectively.

In this model, the equivalent circuit of a double diode PV

module is represented as Fig 1. Here, the current source is
connected to two diodes having different saturation current
Is1 and Is2 which are connected in parallel to a shunt and
series resistance. The second diode in parallel with the other is
for the separation of the two recombination saturation current
terms, one in the depletion region and other in the quasi neutral
region. That is why modelling the PV cell using two diodes
is said to be more accurate.
Fig. 1.

The equations that are solved in [3] using Newton-Raphson

Algorithm is given below:
Im
Vm

Double Diode Model of PV Cell Module

Isc

Im (1 +

Voc
Rs Isc
) exp(
)] +
Ns V t
Ns V t
Voc
Rs Isc
Voc Rs Isc
) exp(
)] +
Is2 [exp(
2Ns Vt
2Ns Vt
Rsh

Is1 [exp(

Rs
)
Rsh

From gure 1, applying Nodal Analysis at point a we get,

I = Iph ID1 ID2

V + Rs I
Rsh

(1)

where,
Iph = Photo-current generated by the Cell.
ID1 ,ID2 = Diode currents from the diode D1 and D2
respectively.
Rs = Series Resistance.
Rsh = Shunt Resistance.
The diode currents for Diode D1 and D2 respectively, are
given as
ID1 = Is1 (exp(

ID2 = Is2 (exp(

I = Iph Is1 (exp(

V + Rs I
) 1)
n1 N s V t

V + Rs I
) 1)
n2 N s V t

(2)

(3)

V + Rs I
V + Rs I
V + Rs I
) 1)Is2 (exp(
) 1)
Ns V t
2Ns Vt
Rsh
(4)

where,
V= Terminal Voltage,
n1 and n2 = Diffusion and Recombination Diode Ideality
Factor.
Now, from the above equation, we have 7 unknown
parameters,i.e, Rs , Rsh , Is1 , Is2 , n1 , n2 and Iph . These 7
parameters are needed to be extracted from the equation above.

Im
Is1
V m + Im Rs
(1 + Rs
)exp(
)
Ns V t
Vm
Ns V t
Im
V m + Im Rs
Is2
(1 + Rs
)exp(
)

2Ns Vt
Vm
2Ns Vt
Im
1
(1 + Rs
)

Rsh
Vm

Voc
Vm + Rs Im
) exp(
)]
Ns V t
Ns V t
Voc
V m + Rs Im
) exp(
)]
+Is2 [exp(
2Ns Vt
2Ns Vt
Voc Vm
+
Rsh
Is1 [exp(

1
Is1
Rs Isc
+
exp(
)
Rsh
Ns V t
Ns V t
Rs Isc
Is2
exp(
)] 1
+
2Ns Vt
2Ns Vt
(Rsh Rs )[

These equations are derived from certain remarkable points on

the I-V curve of the PV Cell-Module,i.e., (0,Voc ), (Isc ,0) and
(Im ,Vm ).
An analytical approach has been followed to nd a good
initial point for the Newton-Raphson Algorithm [3]. Therefore,
the results obtained from analytical and thus from NewtonRaphson are:
TABLE I.

A NALYTICAL AND N EWTON -R APHSON METHOD [3]

DATASHEET-VALUES
Voc (V )
Isc (A)
Vm (V )
Im (A)
Pm (W )
Ns

PV-MODULE
32.9
8.21
26.3
7.61
200
54

Parameters

Analytical-Method

Newton-Raphson

Rs ()
Rsh ()
Is1 (nA)
Is2 (A)
Iph (A)

0.2280
135.5309
0.29153
17.556
8.21

0.3181254
278.9106
0.3794957
4.4335
8.2193

Taking the values from Newton-Raphson Method if V-I and

Power curve is plotted:

Fig. 2.

V-I curve from parameters extracted from NR

where, N= No. of data points of V and I in the I-V curve.

A. GENETIC ALGORITHM

Fig. 3.

Genetic Algorithm is an evolutionary algorithm that

mimics the process of natural selection. This heuristic
is usually used for solutions to optimization and search
problems. It is an iterative method, having some randomly
generated population and in each iteration (called generation)
new individuals are generated and thus the tness of every
individual in the population is evaluated. The individual
with the best tness value is selected stochastically from the
current population and the rest of the population is modied
by mutation and ) crossover to form a new generation. This
process/iteration is terminated until a maximum number of
generations is produced or the cost function has reached a
satisfactory level of tness value.The cost function will be
evaluated by taking the minimization task for the extraction
of unknown parameters.

Power Curve from parameters extracted from NR

min f (x)

xRn

Genetic Algorithm Settings [15]

Population type: Double Vector with Populations size = 20,
Fitness scaling: Rank Selection
Function: Stochastic uniform
Reproduction-Crossover fraction: 0.8,Mutation function:
Constraint Dependent: 100 The generations have been set to
default value,i.e., 100.

TABLE II.

Now, from the plot we can say that the V-I and power curve
for the extracted value using Newton-Raphson Algorithm is
deviating from its actual Datasheet Values. So, for better results
Evolutionary Algorithm can be implemented and thus a better
result is expected as compared to Newton-Raphson Algorithm.
IV.

PROBLEM FORMULATION

Equation (4) is a transcendental function that gives

the current produced by the PV Cell Module. Also, the
unknown parameters Rs , Rsh , Is1 , Is2 , n1 , n2 and Iph are
dependent on Temperature and Ir-radiance. But, in this paper
only the STC (25C o and 1000 W/m2 ) has been studied.
Many evolutionary/optimization techniques are often used
to solve the equation. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm has
been employed to nd out the unknown parameters of the
KC200GT model. The objective function to solve for the
parameters is given as:
f (VL , IL , Rs , Rsh , Is1 , Is2 , n1 , n2 )[14]


N
1 
f (ViL , IiL , Rs , Rsh , Is1 , Is2 , n1 , n2 )2 )
f = (
N i=1

(5)
(6)

GENETIC ALGORITHM

Sl.No.

Parameters

Lower Bound

Upper Bound

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Iph (A)
Is1 (nA)
Is2 (A)
a1
a2
Rs ()
Rsh ()

8
0.1
30
0
1
0
100

8.3
0.2
40
1
2
1
500

Genetic Algorithm Execution Results and Plots

TABLE III.

GENETIC ALGORITHM

PV-MODULE

KC200GT

Parameters

Genetic Algorithm

Iph (A)
Is1 (nA)
Is2 (A)
a1
a2
Rs ()
Rsh ()

8.21
0.1257773
32.3902
0.9996242
2.0000
0.0013
418.2039

employed with different working conditions such as shading

on solar cell and also parameter estimation will be efciently
investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
R
This work is carried out using MATLAB 2013b
provided by Summer Internship Project (EEE Department) at lIT
Guwahati.

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[14]

The V-I and Power plot shows that GA results are quite
accurate to the actual Data-Sheet Values of KC200GT PV
Module under STC conditions in comparison to the NewtonRaphson Algorithm [3].
V.

[15]

C ONCLUSION

The extraction of solar cell parameters using Genetic

algorithm is presented in this study. The double diode model of
solar cell is used to validate the performance of GA in comparison to Newton-Raphson. The outcomes of GA are quite
promising and deserve serious attention. It signies that GA
has the potential as a valuable tool for parameter estimation.
In a forthcoming study, other Evolutionary Techniques will be

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