Hybrid Approach To Maximum Peak Power Tracking

International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Research and Development (IJEEERD),
ISSN 2248 9282(Print), ISSN 2248 9290(Online), Volume 1, Number 1, April-June (2011)
1

HYBRID APPROACH TO MAXIMUM PEAK POWER TRACKING
ALGORITHM

M D Goudar
1,2
, B P Patil
2
, V Kumar
1

1
Electronics Department, Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, India, 826004,
2
Maharashtra Academy of Engineering Alandi (D), Pune, India, 412105,
mahesh_goudar@yahoo.com, bp_patil@rediffmail.com, vkumar52@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the various maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods based on number of
sensors required, speed of convergence, ability to perform under noisy and environmentally
varying conditions have been discussed. The stability of maximum peak point without oscillating
around the peak has been described. A new hybrid MPPT algorithm has been suggested, which
combine the advantages of fractional open circuit voltage, variable step and optimized hill
climbing MPPT algorithm (dP-P&O). The analysis of MPPT based two stage AC photovoltaic
system topology has been analysed. The simulation results of MATLAB and PSIM have been
compared with earlier methods. Improvements in the starting characteristic performance and
tracking effect have been obtained.

Keywords: Insolation, Maximum Power Point (MPP), Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT),
Perturb and Observe (P&O), Photovoltaic (PV).

1. INTRODUCTION
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is very important in solar power systems because it
reduces the solar array cost by decreasing the number of solar panels needed to obtain the desired
output power. Photovoltaic power system performance depends on local irradiance and
temperature conditions. The sunlight intensity of the direct normal irradiance to that on any
surface can be determined using the cosine of the angle between the normal to the sun and the
module plane [1]. The PV applications range from a few watts to few megawatts in PV plants.
The electrical output of a single cell is usually insufficient for most of the applications. In order to
provide useful power to any application, the individual solar cells are connected together. There
are two basic connection methods, series and parallel connections to increase the voltage and
current respectively [2]. The over all cost of PV array and space are two main factors contributing
to the cost of total PV system hence optimizing the size and space are important in reducing the
cost of overall system. Figure. 1 shows a typical space required against the system capacity for
varying PV cell efficiency. The size of the PV module decreases with increasing efficiency of the
PV cells.
International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Research and Development (IJEEERD), ISSN 2248
9282(Print), ISSN 2248 9290(Online), Volume 1, Number 1,
April-June (2011), pp. 01-11
PRJ Publication http://www.prjpublication.com/IJEEERD.asp
IJEEERD

PRJ PUBLICATION
2

Fig. 1. Size of PV Module as a function of Power for various efficiencies of solar cells

When a PV array is directly connected to a load, the systems operating point will be at the
intersection of the IV curve of the PV array and load line. In general, this operating point is not
at the PV arrays MPP. Thus, in a direct-coupled system, the PV array must usually be oversized
to ensure that the loads power requirements can be supplied. This leads to an over expensive
system. To overcome this problem, a switch-mode power converter, called a maximum power
point tracker, can be used to maintain the PV arrays operating point at the MPP [3,4]. The MPPT
algorithm can be used to locate and track the MPP of the PV array. However, the location of the
MPP in the IV plane is not known. It must be tracked, either through model calculations or by a
search algorithm. The situation is further complicated as the MPP depends in a nonlinear way on
irradiance and temperature, which is taken care off by developing algorithm in the present paper.
Many such algorithms have been reviewed by Esram et. al. [5]. However, one particular
algorithm, the perturb and observe (P&O) method, is widely used in commercial PV MPPTs. It is
found that the P&O method can have MPPT efficiencies well in excess of 96% if it is properly
optimized.
A typical AC photovoltaic system is shown in Fig. 2. The PV generation system is
basically classified into single-stage system and two stage system. Two stage system include a
dc-dc circuit and the MPP tracker is achieved by the dc-dc circuit. The inverter control is
achieved by the dc-ac circuit. When MOSFETs M
1
and M
4
is shorted, the load of the current is
passed from M
1
and M
4
. Similarly, when MOSFETs M
2
and M
3
are shorted, the load of the
current is passed from M
2
to M
3
. The output DC voltage of boost converter is transferred AC
output by the power switches M
1
to M
4
[6].

3

Fig. 2. Block Diagram of AC Photovoltaic System with MPPT control algorithm.
2. PV Module Characteristics
The equivalent model of a PV cell is shown in Fig. 3, which consists of an ideal current
source in parallel with an ideal diode. The current source represents the current generated by
photons (often denoted as I
ph
or I
L
), and its output is constant under constant temperature and
constant incident radiation of light.

Fig. 3. Equivalent Circuit of a PV cell with Load
The current-voltage relationship of the PV cell is given by the equation
) 1 (
/
=
kT qV
o sc
e I I I (1)
where I
o
is the reverse saturation current of diode, I
sc
is the short circuit current, q is the electron
charge, V is the voltage across the PV cell, k is the Boltzmanns constant and T is the junction
temperature. The reverse saturation current of diode (I
o
) is constant under the constant
temperature and calculated by setting the open-circuit condition, i.e., I = 0. From equation (1) we
get the relation
) 1 (
/ 0
=
kT qV
sc
oc
e
I
I (2)
4

The photon generated current, which is equal to I
sc
and is directly proportional to the irradiance
and the intensity of illumination on the PV cell. If the value of I
sc
is known from the datasheet
under the standard test conditions and irradiance G
o
is 1000W/m
2
at the air mass (AM) = 1.5, then
the photon generated current at any other irradiance G (W/m
2
) can be calculated by the equation
o
G sc
o
G sc
I
G
G
I | |
|
|
\
|
= (3)
It is possible to combine the diodes D1 and D2 and we get the following equation
(
(
(
(

(
(
=
(
+
|
|
\
| +
p
s
nkT
R I V
q
nkT
R I V
q
sc
R
R I V
e I e I I I
s s
.
1 1
.
02
.
01
(4)
where n is known as the ideality factor and takes the value between 1 and 2. The reverse
saturation current (I
o
) is temperature dependant, which can be calculated by the following
equation at a given temperature T.
(
(
(
(
=
ref
g
ref
T T nk
qE
n
ref
T o T o
e
T
T
I I
1 1
3
| |
(5)
The Eq. (4), at R
p
can be written as
(
+
=
nkT
R I V
q
o
s
s
e I
q nkT
dV
dI
R
.
.
.
/
(6)
The first value of output current (I
N
) has been calculated by Eq. (1) and the next value i.e., I
N+1

can be calculated by Newtons method. The equation for output current can be written as
(
+
(
+
+
(

(
(

=
nkT
R I V
q s
o
nkT
R I V
q
o N sc
N N
s
s
e
nkT
R q
I
e I I I
I I
.
.
1
.
1
1
(7)
The above Eq. (7) has been simulated using MATLAB and described in the following section.
3. PROPOSED MPPT ALGORITHM
Tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic array is usually an essential part
of a PV system. As such, so many methods have been developed and implemented for maximum
power point tracking. The methods vary in complexity, sensors required, convergence speed,
cost, range of effectiveness, implementation hardware, popularity and in other aspects. In fact, it
is difficult to determine which method is most appropriate [7-12]. The first one based on
fractional open circuit voltage (FCV) algorithm sets the PV array current to zero to allow the
measurement of array's open circuit voltage. The array's operating voltage is then set to 78% of
this measured value. This operating point is maintained for a set amount of time and then the
5

cycle is repeated. Problems with this algorithm are that the available energy is wasted when the
load is disconnected from the PV array and the MPP is not always located at 78% of the arrays
open circuit voltage. FCV is a proximate power tracking method suitable when temperature is
constant. The advantage of FCV method is simplicity, which satisfy the starting characteristic.
But the applicability of system is poor, because external environment keeps on changing. In case
of basic P&O MPPT algorithm, the change in the output power is observed for a perturbation
created. If there is an increase in the PV output power, the subsequent perturbation for reference
voltage will be kept the same direction to reach the MPP, while the perturbation shall be reversed
in the case of a decrease in the PV output power. The advantage of this algorithm is its simplicity
but the drawback of the system is that it is slow, oscillatory at peak point. The power drawn from
the PV array with a lager step size contributes to faster dynamics but excessive steady state
oscillations, resulting in a comparatively low efficiency. If iteration step size is small, then the
power drawn from the PV array will have slower dynamics. This problem can be removed by
using the second algorithm i.e. Incremental MPPT with variable step size. In this algorithm if the
operating point is far from MPP, it increases the step size which enables a fast tracking ability. If
the operating point is near to the MPP, the step size becomes very small that the oscillation is
well reduced contributing to a higher efficiency. Variable step size Incremental MPPT algorithm
effectively improves the MPPT speed and accuracy simultaneously. The main advantage of this
algorithm over the P&O method is its fast power tracking process. However, it has the
disadvantage of possible output instability due to the use of derivative algorithm. Also the
differentiation process under low levels of insolation becomes difficult and results are
unsatisfactory. The rapidly changing conditions are tracked by an optimized hill climbing MPPT
method (dP -P&O). The algorithm separates the effects of the irradiation change from the effect
of the trackers perturbation by performing an additional measurement in the middle of the MPPT
sampling period as shown in Fig. 4. This information is optimized in tracking according to the
irradiation change [13]. The change in power between P
x
and P
k
only reflects the change in power
due to the environmental changes, as no action has been made by the MPPT. The difference
between P
x
and P
k-1
(dP
PI
) contains the change in power caused by the perturbation of the MPPT
plus the irradiation change, if the rate of change in the irradiation is constant over one sampling
period of the MPPT. The difference between the two consecutive measurements of power is used
to determine the next perturbation direction. This is the extra computational load as compared to
classical P&O method, if the change in power due to irradiation |dP
I
| is smaller than the change of
power due to the MPPT perturbation |dP|, it is considered to be a slowly changing condition and
the system will use the basic dP-P&O algorithm with small increment values to reduce
oscillations around the MPP.

P
O
W
E
R

(
P
)

Fig. 4. Measurement of the power between two MPPT sampling instances
6

The knowledge of the direction of the irradiation change enables the MPPT to use different
optimized tracking schemes for the different cases of increasing, decreasing, or steady irradiance.
When the irradiance is changing rapidly this strategy leads to faster and better tracking, while in
steady-state conditions it leads to lower oscillations around the MPP.
The proposed hybrid algorithm combines the advantages of all the above three algorithms. The
overall flow of the proposed algorithm is shown in Fig. 5. The first step is the initialization
program is as shown in Fig. 6, which will set the PV arrays

Fig. 5. Flow chart of the proposed hybrid algorithm
operating voltage point to 78% of this measured value of the open circuit voltage which was
decided from the I-V curve tracer for various operating temperatures. The P&O algorithm does
not use the exact power out of the solar panel, but a difference in the proportional power. The
amount the power changed has no effect on the algorithm. For this reason, the exact power out of
the solar panel is not required, which allows us to use the linear relationship of the PWMs duty
cycle and the solar panels current. The proportional power out of the solar panel is calculated by
multiplying the voltage of the solar panel by the duty cycle of the PWM. A variable step has been
used to track the peak point quickly and accurately. Type of environmental changes has been
observed and two different algorithms have been initiated for slowly varying environment
conditions and fast varying environment conditions.

Fig. 6. The flow chart of initialization program
7

The change in the power (P = P(k) P(k-1) is calculated vide measurement of V(k), I(k), V(k-1)
and I(k-1). In order to avoid oscillations at the MPP, no actions are initiated if the change in
power is within the thresh hold limit ||. The size of the variable step is decided by the ratio of
P/V, i.e., if the change in power is more then the variable step size will be larger or vice versa.
The type of environmental variations is calculated using dP-PO algorithm. If the change in power
due to irradiation (|dP
I
|) is smaller than the change of power due to the MPPT perturbation (|dP|),
it is considered to be a slowly changing condition and the system will use the basic variable step
P&O algorithm with small increment values to reduce oscillations around the MPP as explained
in Fig. 7. If the change in power due to irradiation (|dP
I
|) is larger than the change of power due to
the MPPT perturbation (|dP|), it is considered to be a fast changing condition and the system will
use the variable step P&O algorithm (MPPT2) with smaller or larger increment values to reach
the MPP quickly as shown in Fig. 8. If a fast rise of irradiation was detected by dP
I,
the MPPT
increase the duty cycle (increase the PV array reference voltage). Decrease the duty cycle
(reference voltage is decreased) only when the voltage was increased in the previous MPPT
sampling instance and it caused a reduction of power dP. A negative threshold value N
LIMIT
and
positive thresh hold P
LIMIT
are applied in order to avoid unnecessary switching around the MPP.

Fig 7. Flow chart of slowly varying environment conditions (MPPT1)
START
NO
YES
YES
D(k) =
D(k-1) + VS
D(k) =
D(k-1) VS
Is dP >
P
Limit
Is dP >
N
Limit
Is V > 0 Is V = 0
D(k) =
D(k-1) + VS
D(k) =
D(k-1) VS
Is dP >
P
Limit
Is dP >
N
Limit
Is V > 0 Is V = 0
Is Irradiance
Decreasing
RETURN
D(k) =
D(k-1) VS
D(k) =
D(k-1) + VS
YES
YES
YES
YES
NO
NO YES
NO NO NO
NO
NO YES YES

Fig. 8. Flow chart of fast varying environment conditions (MPPT2)

8

4. Simulation
The simulations have been carried out for plotting the V-I characteristics and the PowerVoltage
characteristics for various input profiles of irradiance and temperature and using MATLAB. The
results for various values of temperature are shown in Fig. 9. It is observed from simulated results
that the module current increases with increase in cell temperature and the module voltage
decreases with increase in temperature as expected from the mathematical modeling.

Fig. 9. Output of a MATLAB GUI showing (a) Variation of I-V w.r.t temperature. (b) I-V curve
of PV module under standard test conditions. (c) Power curve w.r.t module voltage under
standard test conditions.

The irradiance and the temperature data collected for one day were given as the input to the
MATLAB program and the MPPT tracking was plotted and validated using MATLAB simulation
and the results of tracking the MPPT are as shown in Fig. 10. The proposed hybrid algorithm
successfully tracks the MPP under varying environmental conditions. The MPP at 200 W/m
2
, 400
W/m
2,
600 W/m
2,
800 W/m
2,
and 1000 W/m
2
insolation levels are marked prominently to confirm
the accuracy of tracking.

Fig. 10. MPPT tracking simulated using MATLAB. ($ implies values at standard test conditions)

The implementation of MPPT algorithm is mainly implemented using basic two topologies viz.
buck and boost topology. In this paper the implementation has been done using buck topology as
its transient response is stable as compared to boost topology [14]. The output was used to charge
9

a battery, which in turn is used as a input a inverter. PSIM was used to simulate power electronics
circuit. The schematic of the inverter circuit is shown Fig. 11.

Fig. 11. PSIM circuit used for simulating the inverter circuit

The performance of the system was evaluated and results compared with the MPPTs methods
from which this hybrid MPPT has been evolved. The cumulative power for a period of one day is
evaluated and the results are as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of performance parameters of various MPPT algorithms

5. RESULTS
The simulation results for V-I characteristics and the powervoltage characteristics were
validated using a setup as shown in Fig. 12. A Multicrystal Si PV module with V
OC
of 21.0 V and
I
SC
of 2.8 A with a peak output power of 37 Wp at standard test conditions has been used for the
test [14]. The temperature and the irradiance data were stored on a multimedia memory card
(MMC) at an interval of one minute. The results obtained were compared with the MATLAB
simulation results.
Sl.
No
Parameter FCV
P & O
Algorithm
Proposed Hybrid
MPPT Algorithm
Cumulative MPPT output Energy
for one day for same irradiance test
pattern
Maximum Energy
(209.9 Wh_Day)
[ ] [ ]

=
day
m m
day
n V n I n P ] [ * ] [
max

174.21 Wh_Day
187.13
Wh_Day
201.5
Wh_Day (96.41%)
2
Increase in Power output in % as
Compared to Fractional Open-
Circuit Voltage
Not Applicable 6.18 % 13.05 %
3 Response Time at start (in ms) 160
4
Response time to adopt the fast
changing environment at peak
point for same irradiance test
pattern (in ms)
160
10

Fig. 12 Experimental setup for I-V curve tracer
The Irradiance data was collected at city of Alandi (D), Pune, India using pyranometer and the
measurements are shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 13. A typical sunny day insolation values measured at city of Alandi (D), Pune, India.

The irradiance and temperature profile for a one day data were fed to the MATLAB and the
output power for three algorithms was evaluated. The observations have been summarized in
Table 1. It is observed from the table that the proposed algorithm shows a improvement of 13.05
% for cumulative power output over its previous algorithms. The response time of the proposed
algorithm (last column) is equal to the response time of fractional open circuit voltage. An
improvement of 87.5 % over P & O algorithm at start of the process has been obtained. The
system has also been tested under the conditions of changing irradiance and found that the
proposed hybrid algorithm response time has been improved by 25% and 90.6%, respectively, for
fractional open circuit voltage and P & O algorithm. The overall efficiency of the system has
been observed to be 96.41%.

5. CONCLUSION
We have simulated simple FCV MPPT algorithm and observed that the response time of the
system is quite fast and reaches quickly to the vicinity of peak point. The changes in the
environmental conditions are tracked by a more efficient variable step size. Two different
algorithms have been initiated for slowly varying environment conditions and fast varying
environment conditions. Finally we have simulated the proposed hybrid MPPT algorithm
11

combining FCV, variable step, and dP-P&O using MATLAB and PSIM. Thus the proposed
hybrid algorithm has been observed to achieve the starting characteristic performance, tracking
effect to achieve an efficiency of 96.41%, which demonstrates the soundness of the proposed
method.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Tom Markvart and Luis Castaner, Practical Handbook of Photovoltaic fundamentals and
applications, Elsevier, 2007.
[2] Tomas Markvart, Solar Electricity, John Wiley, 2001.
[3] Suhas P. Sukhatme, Solar energy Principles of Thermal Collection and Storage, TMH, 2
nd

ed., 2007
[4] Luis Castaner and Santigo Silvestre, Modelling Photovoltaic Systems using PSpice, John
Wiley, 2002.
[5] Trishan Esram, Patrick L. Chapman, Comparison of Photovoltaic Array Maximum Power
Point Tracking Techniques, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 22 (2008), 441-449.
[6] Jui-Liang Yang, Ding-Tsair Su, Ying-Shing Shiao, Research on MPPT and Single-Stage
Grid-Connected for Photovoltaic System, WSEAS Transactions on Systems, 7 (2008), 1-4.
[7] M D Goudar, B. P. Patil, V. Kumar, A Review of Improved Maximum Peak Power Tracking
Algorithms for Photovoltaic Systems, International Journal of Electrical Engineering and
Technology (IJEET), Vol. 01, No. 01, Sept. Oct. 2010, pp. 72-94.
[8] Nicola Femia, Giovanni Petrone, Giovanni Spagnuolo, Massimo Vitelli, A Technique for
Improving P&O MPPT Performances of Double-Stage Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System,
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 56 (2009), 4473-4482.
[9] N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and M. Vitelli, Optimization of perturb and observe
maximum power point tracking method, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., 20 (2005), 963-973.
[10] W. Xiao, and W. G. Dunford, A modified adaptive hill climbing MPPT method for
photovoltaic power systems, Proc. PESC, 2004, 1957-1963.
[11] Xuejun Liu and Luiz A. C. Lopes, An Improved Perturbation and Observation Maximum
Power Point Tracking Algorithm for PV Arrays, 35
th
Annual IEEE Power Electronics
Specialists Conference, Aachen, Germany, 2004.
[12] Fangrui Liu, Shanxu Duan, Fei Liu, Bangyin Liu, and Yong Kang, A Variable Step Size INC
MPPT Method for PV Systems, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 55 (2008), 2625-
2628.
[13] Dezso Sera, Remus Teodorescu, Jochen Hantschel, and Michael Knoll, Optimized
Maximum Power Point Tracker for Fast-Changing Environmental Conditions, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 55 (2008), 2629-2631.
[14] M D Goudar, B. P. Patil, V. Kumar, Review of Topology for Maximum Power Point
Tracking Based Photovoltaic Interface, International Journal of Research in Engineering
Science and Technology (INJOREST) ISSN 2229-5135, accepted for publication.
[15] Ryo Ito, Yasuyuki Matsuzaki, Tatsuo Tani and Toshiaki Yachi, Evaluation of Performance
of MPPT Equipment in Photovoltaic System, IEICE/IEEE INTELEC'03, 2003, 256-260.

Hybrid Approach To Maximum Peak Power Tracking

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