International Conference in MAGNA on Emerging Engineering Trends (ICMEET-2K13)

Global Maximum Power Point Tracking of

Photovoltaic Arrays under Partial Shaded Conditions
1
G.Shobana, 2P.Sornadeepika and 3Dr.R.Ramaprabha
1,2
U.G.Students (Electrical and Electronics Engineering), 3Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
SSN College of Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Kalavakkam-603110, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
1
gshobana92@gmail.com, 2 sornaponnan@gmail.com, 3 ramaprabhar@ssn.edu.in
 International Conference in MAGNA on Emerging Engineering Trends (ICMEET-2K13)
Abstract --- Efficiency of the
PV module can be improved
by operating at its peak power
point so that the maximum
power can be delivered to the
load under varying
environmental conditions.
This paper is mainly focused
on the maximum power point
tracking of solar photovoltaic
array (PV) under non
uniform insolation conditions.
A maximum power point
tracker (MPPT) is used for
extracting the maximum
power from the solar PV
module and transferring that
power to the load. The
problem of maximum power
point (MPP) tracking
becomes a problem when the
array receives non uniform
insolation. Cells under shade
absorb a large amount of
electric power generated by
cells receiving high insolation
and convert it into heat which
may damage the low
illuminated cells. To relieve
the stress on shaded cells,
bypass diodes are added
across the modules. In such a
case multiple peaks in
voltage-power characteristics
are observed. Classical MPPT
methods are not effective due
to their inability to
discriminate between local
and global maximum. In this
paper, truth table based
MPPT algorithm is proposed
to track the global maximum
power point of PV arrays
under partial shaded
conditions.
Key Words - PV systems, Boost
power converters, MPPT,
MATLAB
I. NOMENCLATURE
PV panel current (A)
PV panel Voltage (V)
PV panel Power (W)
Output Current (A)
Output Voltage (V)
Output Power (W)
- Insolation (W/m)
- Temperature (C )
- Duty Cycle
II. INTRODUCTION standalone system is done by
iteratively controlling the (3)
Photovoltaic power
voltage input to the converter
generation systems have
using improved perturb and Iscref 2.55A
infinite energy resources and
observe ( P&O) algorithm. In
are environment friendly
this paper, a truth table based
technology. But low (4)
algorithm has been selected
efficiency and high cost per
because of its
unit output power is the Tref 25o C
implementation simplicity,
biggest problem of these
flexibility, and robustness.
systems. Accommodation of (5)
The PV array is connected to
PV panels in the roof top
a Boost power converter, Vocref 21.24V
creates a practical constraint
which is controlled by a
of partially shaded
microcontroller based control
condition or Non (6)
unit to produce pulses for
uniformly illuminated array
making load matching. This
condition. The power- 3
method guarantees T n b
voltage characteristic of
convergence to the global ISh I shref exp
T 1 1
photovoltaic arrays operating ref
MPP under any partial T T
under partial shading ref
shading conditions, with
conditions exhibits multiple
significantly less PV array
local maximum power points (7)
power perturbation steps
due to the usage of bypass
than those obtained using Iscref
diodes [2]. The bypass diode
is connected in parallel with
other techniques. This Ishref
method can easily be Vocref
each PV module/ group of exp 1
cells to protect the PV cells
incorporated into any V
existing MPPT control Tref
against efficiency
system in both high and low-
degradation and hot-spot
power energy harvesting (8)
failure effects. So the MPP
applications. The above equations are
tracking algorithm which is
able to track global MPP III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION used for modeling the PV
(GMPP) is essential to system. MatLab-Simulink
This section provides the model of PV panel to plot
improve the efficiency of PV
modelling of PV system and the characteristics is shown
arrays. Choice of the apt
design of the converter with in Fig.1. For isolation, G =
algorithm from all that
MPPT. 1000 W/m2 and temperature,
available is the biggest
challenge. A. MATHEMATICAL MODEL T = 370C the characteristics
The MPPT algorithm that OF PV SYSTEM of PV panel consisting of 36
is based on a Fibonacci cells in series with peak watt
A group of solar PV cells of 37.08 W is shown in Fig
sequence does not provide
together form the PV power 2.
accurate GMPP [3]. The
generation system. The
particle swarm optimization
following equations are used
(PSO) [4], Genetic
for the mathematical
algorithms [5] and
modeling of PV cell (1)-(8).
differential evolution [6]
The output current from PV
global MPPT are complex,
panel is given as
increase the implementation
cost and are unable to I pv I ph I D Ish
guarantee the discrimination
between local and global
(1) Fig 1. MATLAB sub system to
MPP, unless the PV array represent PV model
output power is measured at VRsh VPv I Pv R se VD
a large number of operating
points. A new method to (2)
track the GMPP of PV array
operating under partial I Ph G * Iscref
shading conditions of
 International Conference in MAGNA on Emerging Engineering Trends (ICMEET-2K13)
Fig 2. Characteristics of PV system
B. DESIGN OF CONVERTER
FED FROM MPPT
ALGORITHM
The boost converter fed
from the MPPT algorithm is
used to provide a load
matching. The truth table
based MPPT algorithm is
used to feed the load with a
fixed reference value from
the given set of insolation
and temperature conditions.
The relationship between the
output voltage and the input
panel voltage is given by the
expression
VPV
Vo
1 D
(9)
where D is the converter
duty cycle or the duty ratio
that signifies the on time of
the power converter. (D>1)
where T is the total
time period, Ton is the
switching time period,
Toff is the off time period of
IGBT (T=Ton+Toff). So the
boost converter is fed by
means of a control pulse
from the pulse width
modulated signal obtained
by the comparison of the
triangular voltage waveform
and the error signal from the
proportional integral (PI)
controller.
Fig 3. Boost Converter
IV. PROPOSED GLOBAL presented for Set-2 and Set-
MAXIMUM POWERPOINT 3. The voltage, current and
TRACKING SYSTEM power characteristics are
presented vide Fig 5 to Fig
A schematic diagram of
10 for these two sets. For
the proposed global MPPT
Set-2, the parameters
system is depicted in Fig 4.
obtained from simulation
Depending on the PV system
are: VPV = 47.31 V, Vo =
application domain, boost
91.01 V, IPV = 1.85
type dc/dc power converter
A, Io = 0.88 A, PPV = 87.52 W
is used to interface the PV
and Po = 80.09 W. Similarly
array output power to load.
for Set-3, the parameters
The PV array consisting of
obtained from simulation
three panels is connected to
are: VPV = 31.91 V, Vo =
a dc/dc boost converter [7],
66.24 V, IPV = 1.57 A, Io =
which is controlled by a
0.74 A, PPV = 50.09 W and
microcontroller based
Po = 49.02 W.
control unit, such that it
behaves as a constant input-
power load. The truth table Fig 4. Schematic diagram of the
based GMPPT provides a proposed model
reference voltage. This Simulation of the PV
voltage is compared with the array is performed by taking
terminal voltage of the PV the different values of
array under partial shade. insolation (G in W/m) to
This error voltage is applied account for the effect of
to the PI Controller to partial shade, taking
improve the systems gain
temperature as constant Fig 5. Voltage characteristics for
and steady state tracking (T=37C). Truth table based Set-2 in Table I
accuracy. The output voltage GMPPT algorithm provides
of the PI Controller thus a unique reference voltage
produced is compared with a
(Vref) for different values of
triangular input and given to G and T. In this study nine
the boost converter as input
sets of three different
voltage to be boosted. The insolation conditions are
continuous tracking of the
taken. For each set, unique
maximum power point of the value of Vref is obtained and
power voltage characteristics
listed in Table I
is taken care of by the truth
TABLE I. V for Different
table based GMPPT REF
Fig 6. Current characteristics for
algorithm that decides the Insolation Levels Set-2 in Table I
reference voltage to the be (W/m 2
) G 2
3 (W/m ) Vref ( V)
compared with PV output700 300 31.26
voltage. 800 900 47.31
500 800 31.91
300 500 30.59
500 300 30.93
300 400 44.01
900 500 31.88
300 600 32.96
1000 1000 46.77
Fig 7. Power characteristics for Set-
2 in Table I
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The proposed model has
been verified for different
sets and sample results are
 International Conference in MAGNA on Emerging Engineering Trends (ICMEET-2K13)
Fig 8. Voltage characteristics for
Set-3 in Table I
Fig 9. Current characteristics for
Set-3 in Table I
Fig 10. Power characteristics for
Set-3 in Table I
VI. CONCLUSION
The developed GMPPT
will be available to apply for
a large scale industrial
application in roof top as
well as domestic
applications due to its
adaptability under both high
and low power applications
including the factors of
frequently changing ambient
temperature and solar
irradiation. This algorithm
seems to be a more efficient
method compared with other
conventional algorithm
because it does not need the
knowledge of the electrical
characteristics unlike the
classical algorithms. With a
large number of real time [7] G. Adinolfi, N. Femia, G.
Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and
data, the proposed method M. Vitelli, Energy efficiency
can be converted as a neural effective design of DC/DC
network trained method with converters for DMPPT PV
proper training and tuning of applications, in Proc. 35th
Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind.
the network. Electron., pp. 45664570,
2009.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank
the management of SSN
College of Engineering,
Chennai for providing all the
computational facilities to
carry out this work.
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