A maximum power point tracker for module integrated PV systems under rapidly changing irradiance conditions

Abstract

Perturb and Observe (P&O) method is a commonly employed technique in module integrated maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system. But the method suffers from the problems of oscillations around the maximum power point (MPP) during the steady state. Various methods have been reported in the literature to overcome the problem of oscillations around the MPP in the steady state. These methods perform well in the regions with uniform irradiance from the sun throughout the day. However, in the regions with highly variable irradiance due to stochastic cloud cover and cyclonic activity, the P&O based MPPTs with no steady state oscillations do not operate properly due to their slow response to the changing irradiance. This paper proposes a P&O based MPPT which tracks the MPP of a PV module in the face of varying irradiance. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm quickly tracks the MPP. The results also show that the proposed method has 99.92% efficiency in the steady state operation. The proposed algorithm is simple to implement as no additional hardware is required for its implementation.