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A Comparative study of different MPPT techniques

using different dc-dc converters in a standalone PV


system
Bikram sah, Student Member, IEEE Gudey Venkata Eswara Satish Kumar, Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering
Visakhapatnam, India Visakhapatnam, India
bikramsah51@gmail.com satishgudey13@gmail.com

Abstract This paper describes the application of MPPT to 1kW/m2 and ambient temperature of 250c. Equation (2) shows
solar PV system and presents a comparative study between the non linear characteristics of the diode (solar cell) which is
different mppt algorithms using different dc-dc converters. The generally made of silicon because of its wide temperature
MPPT algorithm is very effective electronic means to operate the limits and peak inverse voltage. Equation (5) and (6) shows
pv array at its MPP regardless of changing environmental
conditions. The working methodology of direct MPPT control is
the relationship between PV current and the temperature. A
illustrated in detail .This paper presents the comparative study of single diode model representation of a solar cell is shown in
two dc-dc converters in terms of output current and voltage Fig. 1.
ripple .similarly the efficiency of system with two different
algorithm is studied and presented under varying uniform and
non-uniform irradiation conditions. Matlab R2014a version used
for simulation studies. The effectiveness of the MPPT in
standalone PV system is represented through simulation results
in this work.

Keywordsbuck-boost ,cuk , incremental conductance,


maximum power point tracking, perturb and observe, solar
photovoltaic, Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of pv cell.
G
I. INTRODUCTION I ph = I scr + Ki *(T Tref ) * (1)
1000
Solar energy as a source of renewable energy assures a clean,
V pv + I pv * RS )
abundant and noise free environment. A PV cell is made up of I d = I S [exp( 1]; (2)
two junction p and n constructed on a paper thin layer of A *VT
semiconductor material [1]. Solar Cells or Photo Voltaic Cells KT
(PV) are devices or simply transducers which convert the VT = ; (3)
q
energy available from the sun directly into electrical energy
which is in the form of a DC i.e. electromagnetic radiation of Isc
Irs = ;
solar energy can be directly converted to electricity through exp( B 1)
photovoltaic effect. PV cell when placed in the sunlight, (4)
q *Voc
photons with energy greater than the band-gap energy of the B= ;
semiconductor develops electron-hole pairs proportional to the Nsknt
incident irradiation [1]-[2]. Solar cells can be connected in q*Ego ( 1 1 )
T 3 ( )
NKT Tref T ;
series and parallel depending upon the desired voltage or I S = I rs [ ] e (5)
current. Solar module and the such series connected solar Tr
module form a string and the combination of such string in NP
V + I pv * Rs
series and parallel gives a solar array [2]. Fig. 1 shows the Ns
series resistance Rs, which is an existing resistance opposing I pv = N p * I ph N p * I d (6)
Rsh
the flow of current. The parallel resistance Rsh is inversely
proportional to the leakage current w. r. t. the ground. Where, Iph= light generated current in pv module (A)
Equation (1) shows the relationship between the current K=Boltzmann constant=1.39*10^23J/K; q=electronic
generated from a solar cell and irradiance level [2]. The charge=1.6*10^-19C; A=ideality factor=1.5; Ego=band gap for
standard test condition (STC) is defined by an irradiance of silicon =1.2;Rs=series resistance; Rp=shunt resistance;

978-1-5090-2597-8/16/$31.00 2016
c IEEE 1690
G= irradiance (W/m2); Iscr= short circuit current; Ki= short is negative. The selection of dc-dc converter is based upon
circuit current temperature coefficient at Iscr T= module voltage and current ripple, cost, transient response, switching
operating temperature; Tr=reference temperature; Irs=module losses and efficiency. The introduction and the design aspects
reverse saturation current; Is= module saturation current; Ipv= of these converters are mentioned below.
module output current.
A. Buck-Boost converter
II.SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM
Fig. 2 shows the system block diagram of a standalone PV
system with a constant resistive load.

Fig. 3. Buck-Boost Converter

When the switch is on, the D. C. input voltage is applied


across the inductor (L) [3]. The inductor accumulates energy
during this time. At the same time, the capacitor gives away its
Fig. 2. System block diagram energy to the resistive load Ro. When the switch is off, the
A PV module is constructed using the equivalent solar cell voltage across the inductor gets applied across the capacitor
shown in Fig. 1 and its corresponding equations using and the load, and there is an energy transfer from the inductor
embedded Matlab function. The solar irradiation and L to the load Ro and the capacitor C. The output to input
temperature are two different environmental parameters as voltage transfer ratio for a Buck-boost converter is given by
inputs to solar module, which are never constant. The output of VO D
= (7)
solar module i.e. Voltage and current is fed to MPPT Vin 1 D
algorithm. Because of the variation in environmental condition
where D = duty cycle. The parameters L and C for buck-boost
the IV and PV characteristics of solar cell/module is highly
non-linear. The pertinent graphs of IV and PV of solar module converter are calculated using (8) and (9)
are obtained for different irradiation at constant ambient V D
L S (8)
temperature. MPPT (maximum power point tracking) is the FS I L1
electronic means or device which includes MPPT algorithm VO D
and switch mode dc-dc converter. The MPPT algorithm is the C (9)
brain of MPPT. A comparative study of two different MPPT FS VO R
algorithm and two different converters has been done. Both the Where VS = input voltage from PV module, I L1 =average
algorithms are compared on the basis of ease of
implementation, complexity, convergence speed. Perturb and VO
inductor current and =output ripple voltage.
observe and incremental conductance are the two most popular VO
algorithms and are compared here with different converters
buck-boost and CUK converter. The size of perturbation in B. CUK Converter
MPPT algorithm may be taken small for which steady state
error will be low while the convergence speed of the system
increases [3]. The same results get contrary when the step size
taken is large one. Moreover the perturbation size will be fixed
or variable one. In fixed step size method, the size of step is
constant despite the operating point being far or close to MPP
point while in variable step method, the size of perturbation
increases as the operating point is far and wide away from the
MPP point and it reduces as it approaches the MPP point. This
is quite good for reducing the steady state error and increasing Fig. 4. Cuk Converter
the convergence speed and making the system more efficient
[3]-[4]. The cuk converter has an additional one inductor and one
capacitor compared to a buck-boost converter. When the
III. DC-DC CONVERTERS switch is in Off state, the capacitor C1 is being charged by the
This paper has considered the comparative study of buck- input DC source Vin through the inductor L1. During this time,
boost and CUK converter. Both the converters can step up or the capacitor C1 transfers the energy to the output capacitor C2
step down the output voltage depending upon the switching through the inductance L2. C1 gets connected to the source and
and are inverted in nature i.e. the plarity of voltage and current the load by the turn off of transistor and the diode and it

2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) Proceedings of the International Conference 1691
transfers the energy stored in it. [3]. The DC input voltage and
the output voltage source through C1 are converted to current
sources by the inductors L1 and L2 respectively. The parasitic
resistance limits the current in case if the capacitor gets
connected to the voltage source and subsequently energy loss
[4]. The inductor and capacitor ratings for Cuk converter is
given in Table I:
Table : I
Parameters/components Ratings

Input voltage 30-38 V (b)


Fig. 5 (a) output current and (b) voltage ripple in dc-dc converters.
Switching frequency 50 KHZ
Fig. 5 gives the clear picture that there is low current ripple and
Duty cycle 0.53 consequently low voltage ripple in cuk converter compared to
Output voltage 35 V
the buck-boost converter and hence it is a better for a PV
system.
Output current 4.7 A IV.DIRECT MPPT CONTROL
Resistive load 7.5 ohm The direct MPPT technique [5] limits the use of two control
loop strategies compared to a conventional Proportional plus
Buck-boost
Integral controller based MPPT system. The dc-dc converter
L, C 53H; 4.5F acts as an intermix between the resistive load and the PV
Cuk module and therefore works as an impedance matching circuit.
L1,L2 1.5 H, 1.5 H That is, direct MPPT is based on the maximum power transfer
C1,C2 22 F, 0.47 F technique. When duty cycle is varied [6], the load impedance
changes as seen from the source and regains the same value at
VS D the maximum power with the supply and thereby it transfers
L1 (10) the maximum power.
FS I L1
VO D
C1 (11)
FS Vc1 R
VS D
L2 (12)
FS I L 2
1 D
C2 (13)
2 VO
FS ( )8 L2
VO
The simulation for buck-boost converter and cuk converter is Fig. 6 Illustration of Direct MPPT Algorithm
performed y using the parameters taken from Table I and 1 D 2
difference between the two converters are observed with Rin = RO [ ] (14)
respect to the voltage and current ripple. D
Rin = Vin I in (15)
2
Vo
Ro = (16)
Po
From Fig. 6, point B is the MPP point at which the IV curve of
module and the load line intersects each other and RO = Rin
.Since module current is directly proportional to irradiance
incident upon it. As soon as irradiance decreases module
current decreases and finally Rin increases and becomes
infinity at point C at the same time the value of D becomes
(a) zero from relation [5]. At point A, module current is maximum
due to full irradiance and Rin becomes zero whereas duty
cycle becomes unity, thus we can say that buck-boost family
dc-dc converters can operate over the entire IV curve of solar

1692 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) Proceedings of the International Conference
module. Also as irradiance decreases the value of duty cycle dI I
decreases. = ( ) at MPP (20)
dV V
dI I
A. PERTURB AND OBSERVE MPPT ALGORITHM > ( ) to the left of MPP (21)
dV V
It is the most popular and widely accepted MPPT algorithm.
dI I
In perturb and observe, a perturbation in voltage results when < ( ) to the right of MPP (22)
the load point is far away from the MPP point due to changing dV V
environmental conditions. This perturbation results in changes
of the power in the solar module. The perturbation extends
itself in the same orientation as long as the power increases.
When the maximum power is reached, at the next instance of
time, the power decreases progressively and the direction is
reversed. The algorithm oscillates at the steady state around
the maximum point. To keep the variation in power small, the
size of the perturbation is kept made small. In this technique
the operating point oscillates about the MPP point but does not
coincides to MPP point and this problem is more pronounced
under non uniform conditions [7]. The basic principle of
operation is that at MPP, the gradient of P-V curve vanishes.
From the gradient, it is possible to obtain a corresponding
location of this load point. The change in power with respect
to the change in voltage is defined as the gradient. The
relations are given as below.
dP
= 0 at MPP (17)
dV
dP
> 0 at the left of MPP (18) Fig 7: Flowchart of incremental conductance algorithm
dV
dP V. SIMULATION RESULTS:
< 0 at the right of MPP (19)
dV The IV and PV curve for solar module of given specification is
given below. The temperature being constant equal to 25oc
B. INCREMENTAL CONDUTANCE MPPT ALGORITHM: ambient temperature, the irradiance is varied from 1000Wm2 to
The incremental conductance overcomes the aforementioned 200W/m2. The BP SX150 model PV module is taken in this
short comes of PO algorithm. PV module voltage and current work [9]-[13].
are first recorded by the algorithm. As shown in Fig. 7, the The corresponding IV and PV curve for varying irradiance and
gradient values dI and dV are calculated using the previous temperature are depicted in Fig. 8 to Fig. 10 respectively.
values of current and voltage. The operating point is said to be
on the left hand side if (21) is satisfied and it is shifted to the
other side y increasing the module voltage. [8]. In the same Pmax Vmp Imp Isc VOC
way, it is assumed that the operating point is on the right hand
side if (22) is satisfied and it can be moved to the other side by 150W 34.5V 4.35 A 3.75 A 43.5 V
decreasing the module voltage. This voltage changes is held
until the operating point attains the MPP and satisfies (20).
One cycle of operation is said to be completed when the
algorithm stores the final values of the variables which are
then used in the subsequent cycles of operation as current
values. Atmospheric conditions are also important conditions
to be met by the algorithm. No operation is performed by the
algorithm if the MPPT continues to operate at the MPP
condition i.e. dV = 0 with no change in the irradiation
condition i.e. dI = 0. When the irradiation is increased i.e. dI
> 0, it increases the MPP voltage [8]. At the same instant, the
algorithm tries to increase the operating voltage to track the
MPP point. In a similar way, the algorithm lowers the MPP Fig. 8. IV curve for different irradiance at 25oc
voltage if the irradiation is decreased i.e. dI < 0). The
algorithm decreases the operating voltage at this instant.

2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) Proceedings of the International Conference 1693
Fig 12: graph for output current, voltage and power without MPPT.
Fig. 9. PV curve for different irradiance at 25oc
The variation of input resistance with varying irradiance is
shown here.

Fig 10: IV curve for different temperature at 1000W/m2

Fig. 13 Characteristic between irradiance versus Rin

Since the load resistance is kept constant, the variation of duty


cycle with varying input resistance of dc-dc converter under
different irradiance is plotted below.

Fig 11: PV curve for different temperature at 1000W/m2

From Fig.11, it is clear that irradiance has dominant effect on


PV power than the temperature. The Simulation results of PV
module with Incremental Conductance with CUK converter are Fig 14. Characteristic between irradiance versus duty cycle
described. The data observed from pv system with and without The initial duty-cycle is taken as 0.465 and the fixed size
MPPT is tabulated in Table II. perturbation of 0.002 is given.
Table II
Irradiance Vmp Vmp with Module Module Type Iout Ppv Pout D Vout
2
without MPPT power power (A) (W) (W)
(KW/m ) MPPT without without
(V) PO with 4.66 150 138.8 92.6 0.43 28.19
MPPT MPPT
(V) buck-boost
(W) (W) Inc. Cond. 4.86 150 143.2 95.6 0.45 29.32
With buck-
1 35.45 35.45 150 150 boost
0.8 22.77 35.42 86.44 115.23 PO with cuk 4.76 150 140.4 94.0 0.42 28.61
Inc cond with 4.98 150 147.6 98.4 0.45 29.32
0.6 17.1 35.0 48.42 86.65 Cuk
0.4 11.1 34.23 21.66 56.78
0.2 5.415 33.14 4.887 26.67

1694 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) Proceedings of the International Conference
regulated than PO algorithm. From the above graph the
performance of PV system with MPPT is highly affected with
the varying irradiance level. It is clear that the realization of
incremental conductance MPPT algorithm is better even for
the non uniform irradiance level while in case of perturb and
observe, the PV power is more varying and unsteady. It
decreases the efficiency of the system when the operating
point is far away from the MPP point. The incremental
Fig 15. Comparison of PV power with and without MPPT
conductance methodology with CUK converter exactly
matches the operating point with MPP point and PV system
The simulation time for the Comparative study of Module power is highly optimized.
Power at varying Irradiance for different MPPT algorithm is
taken as 0.5 s. The varying irradiance means irradiance has VII. REFERENCES
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Fig 16: Comparison of Module Power at 0.4KW/m2 Irradiance
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It is observed that the MPPT is indispensible in PV system to for Solar Photovoltaic System , Energy Technology & Policy (2014),
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.With the implementation of MPPT, PV power at low [11] Kok Soon Tey and Saad Mekhilef, Modified Incremental Conductance
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[12] http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom
though the time response of PO algorithm is faster than that of
[13]www.bpsolar.com
Inc. Cond. the power extracted by Inc. Cond. MPPT is more

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