Designing of a Solar MPPT Controller with the Technique of Differentiation Between Uniform Irradiance and Partial Shading Conditions

Abstract

Solar energy is considered one of the best essential energy sources to solve the present power crisis. The solar photovoltaic system has a low conversion efficiency that inflicts maximum power extractions. The non-linear relationship between the voltage and current insists on using a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. Perturb and observe (P&O) MPPT controller is popular because of its simple design and cost-effectiveness features; nonetheless, it has drawbacks while operating under partial shading conditions (PSC). The maximum power trapezium (MPT) method modified the P&O algorithm by incorporating an appropriate scanning mechanism for PSC. Despite having good PSC performance, this method's tracking time is much longer than the conventional algorithm in both uniform irradiance conditions (UIC) and PSC. The algorithm proposed in this paper modifies the MPT method with an extra strategy to distinguish between the UIC and PSC. If the pattern is recognized as UIC, the proposed method utilizes the conventional P&O algorithm to track the MPP; otherwise, scanning techniques are being used. The proposed algorithm's operation was tested on simulation using distinct UIC and PSC patterns and worked effectively.