Improved MPPT method to increase accuracy and speed in photovoltaic systems under variable atmospheric conditions

Abstract The changes in temperature and radiation cause visible fluctuations in the output power produced by the photovoltaic (PV) panels. It is essential to keep the output voltage of the PV panel at the maximum power point (MPP) under varying temperature and radiation conditions. In this study, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method has been developed which is based on mainly two parts: the first part is adapting calculation block for the reference voltage point of MPPT and the second one is Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) block to adjust the duty cycle of PWM applied switch (Mosfet) of the DC-DC converter. In order to evaluate the robustness of the proposed method, Matlab/Simulink program has been used to compare with the traditional methods which are Perturb & Observe (P&O), Incremental Conductance (Inc. Cond.) and FLC methods under variable atmospheric conditions. When the test results are observed, it is clearly obtained that the proposed MPPT method provides an increase in the tracking capability of MPP and at the same time reduced steady state oscillations. The accuracy of the proposed method is between 99.5% and 99.9%. In addition, the time to capture MPP is 0.021 sec. It is about four times faster than P&O and five times faster than for Inc. Cond. and, furthermore, the proposed method has been compared with the conventional FLC method and it has been observed that the proposed method is faster about 28% and also its efficiency is about 1% better than FLC method.