A novel maximum power point tracking control for photovoltaic power system under rapidly changing solar radiation

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel MPPT control algorithm for a digitally implemented photovoltaic power system under rapidly changing solar radiation. The method of the MPPT control algorithm can be classified into two categories: perturb and observe (P&O) and incremental conductance (IncCond). In comparing the P&O and IncCond algorithms, the dynamic and tracking characteristic of the IncCond algorithm is better than P&O algorithm under rapidly changing solar radiation. But in the case of digital implementation, the InCond algorithm has an error on the decision of maximum power operation point (MPOP). To solve this problem, this paper proposes a improved IncCond algorithm, which can determine the MPOP under rapidly changing solar radiation by inserting a test signal in the control input. By simulation and experimentation, the validity of the proposed control algorithm is proved.