Maximum power point tracking control using resistive input behavior of the power converter

Abstract

In this paper, we present a robust controller for maximum power point tracking of a photovoltaic (PV) module that alleviates problems such as the speed of convergence and chattering commonly experienced in conventional controllers. To this end, we propose a control technique that is based on a modification of the incremental conductance algorithm by taking into consideration the pseudo-resistive input behavior of power electronic converter in the discontinuous conduction mode. The proposed method regulates the input resistance of a boost converter to a desired value determined by the PV characterisitics to achieve maximum power conversion, which can be extended to other types of converters such as buck and buck-boost. Simulation results indicate that the PV system working under the proposed controller can successfully track different maximum power points under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. Comparative studies are provided using numerical simulations that illustrate improvements in using the proposed control scheme.