A high performance instantaneous resistance maximum power point tracking algorithm

Abstract

This paper proposes a high performance instantaneous resistance maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) systems under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. This algorithm is based on the derivative of the power with respect to the instantaneous resistance, which vanishes at the MPP of the power-instantaneous resistance characteristics. The authors wish to present this algorithm to the basic family of online MPPT methods like perturb-and-observe (P&O) and incremental conductance (INC) methods from which other methods have been derived. This technique is simpler than the P&O method. It has been compared with these basic methods in terms of its performance also. The simulation studies clearly establish that this method is superior in its startup and dynamic performance for all irradiance levels. In addition, the steady-state performance in terms of oscillations is also improved at low irradiance levels and thus reduces the power losses.