Evaluation of different maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques based on practical meteorological data

Recently, many Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques are proposed in the Photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, a comprehensive comparison of various MPPT techniques especially the dynamic tracking performance has not been made quantitatively for different working conditions. By reviewing different methods, the day-by-day operating evaluation method with practical meteorological data is used in this paper. Furthermore, three typical MPPT techniques including fixed step size P&O method, variable step size incremental conductance method, and hybrid step size Beta method, are selected in the performance evaluation. In order to improve the experimental repeatability and minimize the effect of random environmental factor such as partial shading, an indoor test system that consists of a DC-DC boost converter, a PV emulator and a dSPACE is used. The practical meteorological data are used for the evaluation these typical MPPT techniques and main experimental results are presented.