Performance Analysis of an Improved Variable Step-Size IC MPPT Technique for SPV System

Abstract

Over the decades, the two classical Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques namely, the Perturb and Observe (P&O) and the Incremental Conductance (IC) mainly being used due to their simple and cost-efficient implementation. However, both the techniques have a common drawback of residual oscillations around Maximum Power Point (MPP) on account of the fixed step-size. This paper presents a modified IC MPPT technique by varying the step-size to enhance the capability of fixed step-size IC MPPT technique for a Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) system. The used estimate of step-size has been drawn from the fractional change in power with respect to the current. The reported MATLAB®/Simulink® environment based simulation results clearly demonstrated the superiority of modified IC MPPT controller is over its classical counterpart.