Maximum Power Point Tracking Performance Benchmarking of High Step-Up DC-DC Converters

Abstract

Since renewable energy sources (RESs) such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy have low output voltage and intermittent output power, they are frequently equipped with step-up DC-DC converters to boost the output voltage and extract maximum power. In this study, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) performance comparisons of high voltage gain DC-DC converters, which are frequently used in PV-powered systems, have been presented. Three different high gain step-up DC-DC converter topologies: (i) quadratic boost converter (QBC), (ii) three level boost converter (TLBC), (iii) stacked boost converter (SBC) have been analysed under MPPT mode that uses the Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm. 5.11 kW PV-powered system has been modelled in the MATLAB/Simulink environment for each converter considering the same design specifications such as; 10 kHz switching frequency, 1 mΩ Ron resistance. The related topologies have been simulated under different irradiances: 1000, 900, 850, 750 and 700. Performance results of the aforementioned topologies have been compared in terms of the maximum power of PV panel, the energy efficiency of converters, output voltage ripple and output current ripple. The results reveal that; the TLBC extracts maximum power from PV panels with the converter efficiency 98.9%. The SBC and QBC extract minimum power from PV panels with the converter efficiency 98.1% and 96.5%, respectively. As a consequence, TLBC topology excels with the maximum power extraction capability and efficiency.