Performance enhancement of maximum power point tracking for grid-connected photovoltaic system under various gradient of irradiance changes

Abstract

This paper presents a new variant of smart adaptive algorithm of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) in the photovoltaic (PV) system. The algorithm was adopted from Modified Perturb and Observe (MP&O). The smart adaptive MPPT is used to search Maximum Power Point (MPP) of the PV system under various irradiance changes. This algorithm incorporates information of current change (ΔI), maximum operating point margin and dynamic perturbation step to prevent MPPT diverging away from the MPP and minimize the steady state oscillation. The smart adaptive MPPT algorithm performance is compared with the dI-P&O and conventional P&O to prove its effectiveness. The comparison is performed under the various gradient of irradiance change. It was found that, for all the tests, the smart adaptive algorithm scheme improve the tracking efficiency under various gradients of irradiance changes and increase the efficiency of extraction power from PV system.