A robust hybrid method for maximum power point tracking in photovoltaic systems

Abstract

In this paper a new hybrid method for maximum power point tracking in PV systems has been proposed. This method combines offline and online methods in order to estimate duty cycle of converter in maximum power point. In the offline phase, temperature and radiation intensity are the inputs of the system to estimate the approximate maximum power based on analytical equations of solar cell. These equations which give the relation of maximum power with temperature and irradiation can be derived from characteristics of cell provided by manufacturer or experiments. Afterwards the duty cycle of converter would be estimated using circuit equations of measured Thevenin model of the load and battery. Measuring Thevenin equation results in robustness of method respecting variations of load and battery. In the online phase, the classic perturbation and observation (P&O) method will be utilized for fine tuning and tracking of maximum power point. The proposed method has been simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK workspace and compared with some other MPPT methods. The results reveal that this hybrid method outperforms other methods in term of performance and speed of tracking.