Performance Analysis of Three MPPT Controls Under Partial Shading: P&O, PSO and ANN

Abstract

Photovoltaic energy has gained an important place among renewable energies. Given its weather-dependent efficiency, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques are essential to maximize the energy extracted from the panels. Partial shading is a phenomenon that degrades the efficiency of photovoltaic panels, by distorting the power vs. voltage curve, which consequently has several peaks, one of which is a global maximum. The aim of this work is to evaluate the ability of MPPT methods to find the global maximum power point in partial shading conditions. To achieve this, the work focuses on simulating and discussing the performance of three MPPT methods, the Perturb and Observe (P&O) command, a command based on particle swarm optimization (PSO), and a command based on artificial neural networks (ANN). By comparing the results of simulations of the three controllers under different partial conditions, we can see that the P&O controller loses accuracy in partially shaded conditions, while the PSO controller is more accurate but with a very slow response time, and lastly, the ANN-based controller offers the best precision and speed performance.