DC power-line communication based network architecture for HVDC distribution of a renewable energy system

The shading effect and the aging of components as the photovoltaic panels in a renewable energy installation are ones of the main problems to be taken into consideration in an energy production system. Due to the multi-sources nature of this energy production, a solution based on a distributed architecture with individual DC-DC converters, connected to an intermediary high voltage direct current (HVDC) bus can be proposed. Associated to this architecture, to assume simply the communication between the modules, one solution is to use the HVDC power bus to support the communication between optimizers and a central controller using a power-line communication (PLC) approach. This work focuses on this approach and concerns the analysis of the pertinent information necessary to exchange between converter and the central controller and the development of a new hardware solution for the PLC from the conception of the communication system to the realization of a prototype. At minima, the information can include the I-V characteristics and the temperature of the individual sources. The development of an electronic prototype integrating recent available components is made and the technological constraints at the possible available frequency bandwidth are considered. The concrete realization will be presented in fine. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.