Maximum Power Point Tracking using modified Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

Abstract

Abstract: Maximum power point tracking is an essential and vital technique generally applied in SPV technology under uniform and partial shading conditions. The existence of partially shaded conditions leads to the presence of several peaks on PV curves, which decrease the efficiency of conventional techniques. Hence, the proposed algorithm, which is based on the modified particle-swarm optimization (MPSO) technique, increases the output power of PV systems under such abnormal conditions and has a better performance compared to other methods. The proposed method is examined under several scenarios for partial shading condition and non-uniform irradiation levels using Matlab and to investigate its effectiveness adequately. The experimental results show that the proposed method can decrease the interference of the local maximum power-point to cause the PV system to operate at a global maximum power-point. The efficiency of the MPSO is achieved with the least number of steady-state oscillations under partial shading conditions as compared with the other methods. Keywords: Photovoltaic(PV), Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO), Modified Particle Swarm Optimization(MPSO), Partial shading condition(PSC), Velocity step function.