Stability Analysis of FPGA Based Perturb and

Observe Method MPPT Charge Controller for

Solar PV System
Tripti Saini, Dogga Raveendhra and Padmanabh Thakur
Abstract-- In recent years, renewable energy sources have become
most popular day by day to generate electrical energy. Among all
other types of renewable energy sources, solar is one of the best
alternatives for conventional sources as it offers more
advantages. This paper is mainly concentrated on the area of
charge controller in solar PV power conditioning system. In this
paper, a P&O method MPPT charge controller is designed and it
is converted into digital domain to use in FPGA. Compared to
analog controllers, digital controller offers more advantages like
high accuracy, less effected by noise etc., MPPT charge controller
is designed to perform 1) to convert the variable DC electrical
energy which is coming from solar into fixed DC and 2) to track
the maximum power from the solar PV module under all
operating conditions. This fixed DC can be used to feed the DC
loads or charge the batteries.
Keywords- Solar, PV, solar PV module, MPPT, DC-DC Boost
converter, P&O method, FPGA.

I. INTRODUCTION
One of the major concerns in power sector, the power
demand is increasing day-by-day but the unavailability of
enough resources to meet the power demand using the
conventional primary energy sources. The generation of
energy from the use of the non-renewable energy sources
causes pollution problems and also these sources are not
available for long time. Our researchers and engineers are
focused on these problems and they have found that there are
many alternative energy sources can be used instead of fossil
fuels.
After the search for the alternative ways, the solar
photovoltaic (PV) system and wind power generation systems
are found to be more advantageous compared to all different
types of renewable energy sources for the desirable
environmental and safety aspects. Among these two renewable
sources, solar power systems attract more attention [1]. Solar
energy sources has its own advantages like long life with little
maintenance, high power capability per unit of weight and
Tripti Saini is with the Department of Electrical & Electronics
Engineering, Graphic Era University, Dehradun-248002, India (e-mail:
tripti.saini@gmail.com).
Dogga. Raveendhra (Assistant Professor) is with the Department of
Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Graphic Era University, Dehradun248002, India (e-mail: doggaravi09@gmail.com)
Padmanabh Thakur (Associate Professor) is with the Department of
Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Graphic Era University, Dehradun248002, (e-mail: tonu_arth@rediffmail.com).

978-1-4673-5630-5//13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

highly mobile. In the solar photovoltaic, solar cell is the basic

element which converts the solar energy into the electrical
energy. To form solar PV module there are combination of
several solar cells need to be used. The output of solar cell
depends on the weather conditions (temperature and
irradiation), which are fluctuating in nature. Under normal
operating conditions, each solar PV module offers unique
maximum operating point. If solar PV module operates at that
optimum operating point, can get maximum efficiency at the
load. To achieve good efficiency from the solar PV system
there is a need to extract maximum power from module. This
can be achieved by placing MPPT charge controller as a part
of power conditioning system between solar PV module and
DC load.
The solar energy comes from the sunlight in the form of
solar irradiation and temperature [2]. It converted variable DC
by using solar PV module. The output of solar cell depends on
the temperature, insulation, spectral characteristics of sunlight
and so on. The energy conversion efficiency of solar PV array
is very low and thus, the maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) control technique is required to extract the maximum
power from the solar PV array in order to increase the overall
efficiency of the solar PV system [3].
Every photovoltaic solar cell has optimum operating point
which is called maximum power point (MPP). This maximum
power point can varies if there will be any variation in the cell
temperature and irradiation level. MPPT tries to match the
impedance of the module with the load/battery by changing
the duty ratio of the DC-DC converter. In this paper 24V solar
PV module is modeled with the help of mathematical
equations in the MATLAB. For this designed solar PV
module, DC-DC boost converter has to be designed properly
to attain high DC bus voltages. In this paper 24V to 100V DCDC boost converter is designed and it is controlled with P&O
method MPPT controller. This P&O method MPPT controller
is implemented in digital domain to use in FPGA. This FPGA
based MPPT controller is converts variable DC into fixed DC
of 100V magnitude.
II. PROPOSED SYSTEM
Solar PV system is combination of several components like
solar PV module, power conditioning system and battery or
load. Solar PV module is formed by connecting group of solar
PV cells in series or parallel depends upon voltage or current
requirements whenever there is need of high voltages, there is
a need of series connected solar PV modules similarly for the
requirement of high currents there is a need of parallel

connected solar PV modules. These arrangements can provide

variable DC supply which is function of both temperature and
irradiation. This variable DC should be converted into fixed
DC by using MPPT based boost converter. Generally boost
converter is preferred in solar PV System rather than buck
converter because of availability of voltage from solar module
is low in solar PV system. This boost converter is a part of
power conditioning system (PCS).
Usually Power Conditioning Systems (PCS) plays major role
in solar PV systems. These are designed with the help of
power electronic devices. PCS is used to manage the electrical
energy effectively and to provide high quality maximum
power from solar PV module. There is used a boost DC-DC
converter to get the desired high level DC output voltage from
variable low level DC power supply like solar PV module.
This proposed solar PV system provides constant DC Supply
by using the FPGA based MPPT and the DC-DC boost
converter.
As we mention earlier that solar PV system is the
combination of several elements like PV module, power
condition elements and DC load. As shown in figure-1, the
circuit diagram there is two systems one is PV Module and
another one is MPPT based DC-DC boost converter. This
MPPT algorithm is implemented in FPGA to control the
switch of MOSFET in DC-DC converter.

Rsh= Shunt resistance

q = Electron charge (1.6 e-19C)
k = Boltzmanns constant (1.38 e-23J/K)
B. Maximum power point tracking
In the solar PV system, the efficiency is very low because of
solar PV module provides very low efficiency. The method
which is used to increase the efficiency of the solar PV system
by tracing the maximum power point, such a method is called
maximum power point tracking (MPPT). By using this
technique, one can get the maximum possible power from the
solar PV system. In other words MPPT is a device which tries
to match the impedance of the module with that load or battery
to extract the maximum power. Resultantly, various MPPT
techniques with different characteristics performance have
been proposed in past years [4]. Some methods of them are
listed below [5].

Perturb & observe method

Incremental conductance
Fraction open circuit voltage
Fractional short circuit current
Fuzzy logic control
Neural network

Fig.1 Proposed FPGA based MPPT charge controller

A. Model for solar PV system

In the figure-2 there is show a simple equivalent
circuit diagram for solar PV system. In the circuit, it includes a
photo current source, a diode, a load, a series resistor and a
parallel resistor.

Fig.2 Solar PV system

The PV cell output current can be defined as follow in

equation 1.
I = Iph Id (e

Vd/nVt

- 1) (Vd/Rsh)

Iph = Short-circuit current due to sunlight

Id = Diode current
R = Resistance load
Rs = Series resistance

(1)

Fig.3 MPPT charge controller

Among all methods, P&O method is chosen to draw

maximum power from the solar PV module and it is
implemented in digital domain.
C. Perturb and observe method
Perturb and observe method is most common method of
MPPT. In P&O method, the MPPT algorithm is based on the
calculation of the PV output power and the power change by
sampling both the PV current and voltage [6]. The most basic
purpose of the perturb & observe algorithm, it adjust the
operating voltage of photovoltaic solar system and observe
whether the output power of the system is increase or
decrease. If it observes that the output voltage is increase, the
algorithm will continues to adjust the output voltage in the
same direction. If it observes that the output voltage is
decrease, the algorithm adjusts the output voltage in the
opposite direction.

E. FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)

A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is pre-fabricated
device that can be electrically programmed to become any
kind of digital circuit. It is an integrated circuit which is an
array of logic cells. It can be made or designed as requirement
of users.
In this paper the proposed system is controlled with the help
of FPGA i.e., the MPPT Perturb & Observe (P&O) method is
programmed in VHDL by using Xilinx space system generator
to control the DC-DC boost converter.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS

Fig.4 Flowchart of the P&O algorithm

In this paper, 100V MPPT charge controller is designed with

the help of small signal analysis and presented simulation
results. 100V DC Solar PV system MATLAB Simulink model
is shown in figure-6. In this model, solar PV module is
modeled in MATLAB 2008a with help of mathematical
equations. The left portion of the MATLAB Simulink
represent the solar PV system, right portion represents DC-DC
boost converter and down portion represents the MPPT
Perturb & Observe (P&O) algorithm. Irradiation, Insulation
and Short Circuit currents are taken as inputs to this solar PV
module model. From this model variable DC is obtained. By
this variable DC we get the maximum power by using the
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) [10].

D. DC-DC Boost converter

The main purpose of DC-DC boost converter, it converts
low level DC voltage into high level DC voltage [7].
Generally DC-DC boost converter operates in two modes
either in charging mode or discharging mode, which are based
on the closing and opening of the switch respectively.
Inductor, a diode, and a high frequency switch are the main
elements of the DC-DC boost converter [8]. In the figure-5
there is shown a basic circuit of the boost converter.

Fig.6 MATLAB Simulink

Fig. 5 DC-DC Boost converter circuit

Charging mode-: In the charging mode of operation, the

switch is closed and inductor gets start charging by the
source through the switch. In this mode diode is reverse
biased. The diode restricts the flow of the current from
source to load [9].
Discharging mode-:In the discharging mode of operation,
the switch is open and inductor start discharges and
together the source charges the capacitor and meets the
load demands. The variation of the load current is very
small and sometime in many cases is assumed constant
throughout the operation of the DC-DC boost converter.

To design DC-DC boost converter properly with good load

and line regulations small signal analysis is used. From this
analysis, obtained small signal plant transfer function and
controller transfer functions are shown in below for 24V to
100V conversion.
A. Specifications of PV System

Temperature variations range of PV System (T) =

(293K-307K)
Irradiance (G) =1000W/m2

DC-DC Boost converter is designed for 24 to 100V with the

following specifications-:

Drain to source resistance rDS = 0.1800

Inductor L = 7.0000e-004H

Inductor Internal resistance rL = 0.1900

Capacitance C = 4.7000e-005F
Capacitor ESR rC = 0.1110
Diode Forward resistance RF = 0.0720
Input Voltage Vi = 24V
Output Voltage Vo = 100V
Output Power Po = 150W
Switching Frequency Fs = 10kHz
Ts = 1.0000e-004Sec
Duty Ratio D=0.5
Output Current Io = 1.0417A

Fig.8 Changes in Temperature

B. 24 to 100v, 150w Boost Converter Small Signal Transfer

Function analysis
From the specification of DC-DC boost converter, Plant
Transfer function (Tp) is given by
.

The simulation result of photovoltaic module current and

voltage is shown in figure-9 and 10 respectively. Gate pulses
from FPGA are obtained to control DC-DC boost converter
shown in figure-12. And the simulation result DC-DC boost
converter current and voltage is shown in fig.13 and 14.

(2)

The Plant Transfer function of DC-DC boost converter is

having negative coefficients in numerator. To make it stable,
design a charge controller in z-domain which is given by
.

.
.

(3)

Equation 3, represent the controller for boost converter in zdomain. After designing of charge controller, bode plot has
been drawn for the loop gain of closed loop DC-DC boost
converter is shown in figure-11. From this bode plot, observed
that the gain margin of the charge controller is 3.92o at the
phase crossover frequency 2.12e5 Hz. And Phase margin of the
charge controller is 57.5o at the gain crossover frequency
1.26e4 Hz. From these frequency domain specifications i.e.,
PM and GM are observed that positive. Therefore, the
designed closed loop DC-DC converter is this PV system is
fully stable.

Fig. 9 Photovoltaic Current

Fig.10 Photovoltaic Module Voltage

Fig. 7Changes in Irradiation

From the MATLAB Simulink, get the waveform of changes in

irradiation and changes in temperature are shown in fig.7 and
Fig. 8 respectively.
Fig. 11 Loop Gain Bode Plot of closed loop DC-DC Boost converter

FPGA Based Perturb and Observe Method MPPT Charge

Controller Implementation for Solar PV System. Designed
FPGA Based Perturb and Observe Method MPPT Charge
Controllers Loop gain is found to be 57.5o Phase margin,
which is fully controlled and stable for line and load
variations.
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Fig. 12 Gate Pulses from FPGA to control DC-DC Boost Converter

Fig. 13 Current of DC-DC Boost Converter

Fig. 14 Current of DC-DC Boost Converter

IV. Conclusion
This paper presents the complete analysis of small signal
mode DC-DC Boost Converter and MATLAB Simulations of

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