Modeling and validation of a DC/DC power converter for building energy simulations

Abstract

European legislation on building performance and energy efficiency pushes the shift towards minimizing the environmental footprint of buildings. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is a promising technology that can accelerate the transition to energy-neutral buildings. Quantifying the potential of BIPV is crucial and one means of obtaining those results is through simulation. The state-of-the-art tools offer either thermal or electrical specialization; in particular, balance of system components (BOS) such as power converters have not been studied in detail within the building simulations BIPV domain. In this paper, a multi-physics model of a BIPV integrated DC/DC converter is developed in the Modelica language, taking into account the thermal and electrical couplings inherent to power electronic systems. The model has been validated using representative outdoor BIPV measurements and a DC/DC converter prototype. It has been found that the proposed model provides reasonable accuracy and outperforms an equivalent power conditioning model in TRNSYS. To demonstrate the model’s functionality, two case studies are performed. First, the temperature-dependence of the converter’s efficiency and losses is quantified and analyzed and, second, the prominent contributors to the converter losses are identified and discussed.