A New Gamma Scaling Maximum Power Point Tracking Method for Solar Photovoltaic Panel Feeding Energy Storage System

Abstract

This paper analyzes the variable step size selection methods applied to the incremental conductance based maximum power point tracking technique (MPPT) for the solar photovoltaic system. The delta P/delta V (DpDv) variable step size method and the novel variable step size method, namely the gamma scaling method, are developed in Matlab/Simulink. Extensive results are obtained using these step size methods and compared. The proposed gamma scaling method is found to have higher efficiency with lower peak-peak ripple in load current as compared to DpDv, when sudden irradiance of 1000 W/m2 is applied to the PV panel. There are numerous other performance advantages of the gamma scaling method compared to the DpDv method under various irradiation conditions. The hardware prototype of the inverse sepic converter is used which is supplemented by the gamma scaling and DpDv methods. The simulated and experimental results of gamma scaling and DpDv methods are compared. In terms of performance, the proposed gamma scaling method has been found to be better than the DpDv method.