Development of an efficient Photovoltaic MPPT

Controller
Jayabrata Maity1, Sanjib Kumar Mitra2, Jayanta Majee3, Sumana Chowdhuri4, Jitendranath Bera
Dept. of Applied Physics
University of Calcutta
92 APC Road, Kolkata 700009, India
1
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract- A Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) Controller In this work a microcontroller based buck converter for PV
using a buck converter has been designed and developed for a cell MPPT system using P&O algorithm has been designed
standalone Photovoltaic(PV) array. Perturb and Observe (P&O) and implemented. In P&O algorithm iterative method is
algorithm has been implemented on a microcontroller to achieve applied where the panel operating voltage is perturbed. This
the maximum power output from PV array. The whole developed
would affect the PV output power. MPPT measures or
hardware system has been tested with and without MPPT in a
conventional PV array. The results show that the introduction of observes the power-voltage characteristics of PV module and
MPPT controller increases the efficiency of the conventional PV determines the panel operating voltages. The iteration process
array. continues until the MPP has been reached. However due to
Keywords: Photovoltaic(PV), Maximum Power Point Tracking perturbation the operating point actually oscillates around the
(MPPT), Perturb and Observe (P&O), Buck Converter, MPP. This iteration process modifies the actual panel voltage
MOSFET, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). in order to increase the output power.
I. INTRODUCTION II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Photovoltaic sources are now-a-days used in many
applications such as satellite power systems, battery charging, A. Cell Equivalent circuit and Characteristics Curves:
water pumping, home applications and others. It is the power Photovoltaic cells are basically a semiconductor p-n
resource for remote places and many defence issues where it is junction [1, 2, 4], which converts light into electricity, when
impossible to bring the conventional power. sun light incident upon it. When the solar energy absorbed by
Solar energy like other renewable energies is clean, eco- it exceeds the band gap energy of the material – electricity is
friendly, inexhaustible, pollution free and almost maintenance generated [1, 2]. From the theory of semiconductors and
free. It is helpful for solving the energy shortage and photovoltaic the characteristics and behaviours of PV cell and
environment pollution. Unfortunately PV generation system module can be explained by the following equation [2, 4, 5].
has two major problems. The conversion efficiency of power
generation is very low (about 8-20%) especially under low ⎡ ⎛ qV ⎞ ⎤ ⎛ V + I RS ⎞
I = I ph − I d ⎢e xp ⎜ ⎟ − 1⎥ − ⎜ ⎟ . . . . . . . (1 )
irradiations. The amount of power generated by a PV system ⎣⎢ ⎝ K bT A ⎠ ⎥⎦ ⎝ R sh ⎠
changes rapidly with weather conditions. PV arrays are till ⎡ T ⎤
2
⎛ qEg ⎡ 1 1 ⎤ ⎞
I d = I rr ⎢ ⎥ exp ⎜ − ⎟⎟ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ( 2 )
now an expensive choice compared to existing fossil fuel ⎜ K Q A ⎢T ⎥
⎣ Tr ⎦ ⎝ ⎣ r T ⎦ ⎠
generated electricity. For using such an expensive system, the I p h = S ⎡⎣ I S C R + K i (T − T r ) ⎤⎦ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ( 3 )
user naturally wants to operate it at it’s maximum efficiency.
The solar V-I characteristics is non-linear and changes
mainly with solar irradiation and panel temperature and other Where, I and V are the solar cell output current and voltage
environmental conditions [1, 2, 3]. There is an unique point on respectively.
the solar I-V and P-V curve, called Maximum Power Point Iph or Isc is the short circuited current. Id is the dark
(MPP). At this point the entire PV system operates with saturation current of the internal diode, q is the charge of an
maximum efficiency and produces its maximum power output. electron, Eg is the band energy gap of the material. Irr is
The location of MPP on solar array characteristics is not saturation current and ISCR is short-circuit current at reference
known, but can be obtained by a search algorithm- Maximum temperature Tr. ki is short circuit temperature coefficient and
Power Point Tracking algorithm. MPPT techniques are used to A is the diode quality factor. Kb is the Boltzmann constant. T
maintain the PV array’s operating point at or near the MPP. is the temperature of the cell. Rs and Rsh are respectively the
In MPP search several algorithms are used among which series resistance and shunt resistance of the solar cell.
many researchers uses Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm, According to [1, 6], the shunt resistance has greater
incremental conductance algorithm [4, 5, 6], influence in the region of low voltages. This resistance is
mainly due to the leakage of current in the cell surface. The

978-1-4673-1669-9/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

series resistance has origin in the metallic contacts and it C. Perturb & Observe Algorithm
offers significant influence on the performance of the solar The Perturb and Observe algorithm states that when the
cell. In practical cases, since Rs is small and Rsh is relatively operating voltage of the PV panel is perturbed by a small
large [2, 4, 5] so the above equation can be simplified to increment, if the resulting change in power, P is positive, then
we are going in the direction of MPP and we keep on
⎡ ⎛ qV ⎞ ⎤ perturbing in the same direction. If P is negative, we are going
I = I ph − I d ⎢ e x p ⎜ ⎟ − 1 ⎥ ........( 4 ) away from the direction of MPP and the sign of perturbation
⎣⎢ ⎝ K bT A ⎠ ⎥⎦ supplied has to be changed ( Fig 3 ). The point marked as MPP
is the Maximum Power Point, the theoretical maximum output
obtainable from the PV panel.
From this equation the equivalent circuit model for PV
system is [1, 2, 4, 5] as shown in fig1.a.

Fig 3: P vs. V of PV Cell

Fig 1.a: Equivalent circuit Fig 1.b: Characteristic curves
The flowchart for the P&O algorithm is shown in given in
The output I-V and P-V characteristics of solar array under
Fig 4.
constant uniform irradiance and constant temperature is shown
in fig 1.b. start
There is a unique point on the curve, called the maximum
power point (MPP), at which the array operates with
Initialise timer 1 for gate pulse
maximum efficiency and produces maximum output power.
In general, this operating point is not at the PV array’s MPP.
And thus the system is an inefficient one. To overcome this Set multiplexer for voltage(V(k)) value
problem, a buck converter, with maximum power point measure and current (I(k)) value measure
tracking control system can be used to maintain the PV array’s
operating point at the MPP. The MPPT does this by P(k)=V(k)×I(k)
controlling the PV array’s voltage or current independently of ∆P(k)=P(k)-P(k-1)
those of the load. If properly controlled by an MPPT algorithm,
the system can locate and track the MPP of the PV array. Y N
∆P(k)>0
B. Buck Converter:
N ∆V(k)>0
Y N ∆V(k)>0 Y
We are using a BUCK converter, which is a step-down DC
to DC converter. Its design is similar to the step-up boost
converter. The Fig 2 below shows its schematic. Decrease D Increase D Increase D Decrease D
Input and output voltage relation of buck type converter is
E 0 = D × E dc .....( 5 )
P(k-1)=P(k)
Where D = duty cycle of gate pulse of MOSFET. V(k-1)=V(k)

Fig4.: Flow Chart for P&O

III. IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation of the hardware for the microcontroller
based MPPT controller from PV array has been done in two
Fig 2.: Buck converter stages (Fig 5). One is the design of power circuit, which is
basically a MOSFET based Buck Converter. Another stage is
Here LC filter is designed according to the switching
the design of control circuit. Microcontroller 89S52 has been
frequency of the MOSFET control so that output voltage
used to generate Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control
remains constant at all duty cycle.
signal based on MPPT algorithm. This control signal is fed to load with the variation of duty cycle of the converter. The
the MOSFET in power circuit. system performance is tested with and without the MPPT.
A. Solar panel characteristics by varying load resistance:
In sufficient sunlight a variable resistance across the output
of the solar panel is connected. Now the resistance is varied.
The following P-V and I-V characteristics are obtained when
load resistance connected to solar panel is varied ( Fig 7 and
Fig 8 ).

Fig 5: Block diagram of the hardware

A. Power Circuit:
Under the influence of solar-irradiance the solar panels
generates a DC voltage. This voltage is fed to the input of the Fig 7: P Vs. V Curve for experimental PV cell
buck converter circuit. The converter is used to vary the output
voltage. This variation of voltage depends upon the gate pulse
of the MOSFET. The main issue in designing the buck
converter is the proper choice of L and C for operating
frequency.
In our project we choose the switching frequency, f = 1
KHz., Peak to peak capacitor voltage ripple is 0.4 volt and
peak to peak inductor current ripple is 0.17 A, Also, we
assume that at MPP the panel voltage be 35 V. with this the
L=40mH and C=50uf. Fig 8: I Vs. V Curve for experimental PV cell

B. Control Circuit: B. Solar panel characteristics by varying the duty cycle:

The control circuit has been shown in Fig6. The voltage and From the buck converter principle when duty cycle (D) of
current signal sensed by voltage divider circuit and shunt are the converter is varied the effective resistance is varied as -
analog one. These signals are converted to digital signals with Ro
Ri = ...........(6)
the help of ADC. The digital output is then fed to PORT 0 of D2
microcontroller. In this design only one ADC has been used where Ro is output resistance and Ri is the input resistance
to reduce the cost. Hence one Multiplexer IC is used to seen by the source.
distinguish between voltage signal and current signal. The Now the buck converter is connected between the solar
multiplexer control is generated from the microcontroller for panel and the load. The duty cycle is varied. The following
signal selection. The program in the microcontroller generates results are obtained from the variation of load by varying the
a PWM signal which is the gate signal of MOSFET. duty cycle (D) of the converter. Different characteristics from
the above results (Fig 9 and Fig 10) are obtained which is in
uniform with the resistance variation characteristics..

Fig 9. P Vs. Voltage of experimental PV cell

Fig 6:control circuit

IV. RESULTS
To verify the results of the implemented system load
resistance is directly coupled with solar panel output and it is
varied to check the solar panel characteristics. These
characteristics are also checked with changing the effective
 V. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
In our work a hardware setup has been designed and
developed. The converter we considered is buck type and load
is resistive load. It has been proved that that the introduction
of MPPT has increased the performance of the conventional
system.
From experimental results we observed that the power
Fig 10. P Vs. duty Cycle of experimental PV cell delivered to the load with MPPT is higher than to that the load
without MPPT. In the result table in 55 lux light intensity
C. Waveforms of the solar panel voltage and current when without MPPT the power at the load is 1.64 watt. When MPPT
duty cycle is varied: is connected to the system the power at the load found to be
The following waveforms of gate pulse to the MOSFET, increased to 6.04764 watt. The experiment is also done for
solar panel voltage and currents for different duty cycle are higher light intensities such as 210 and 360 lux. We found the
taken from the Digital Storage Oscilloscope (TEKTRONIX similar results as previous light intensities of 55 lux. The goal
TPS 2024B). Fig 11 shows the starting of MPPT algorithm, of the project was to increase the efficiency of the system.
where the upper waveform represents the MOSFET gate pulse, Hence we can say that efficiency of the system has been
middle waveform shows the PV cell voltage and lower increased with the introduction of MPPT.
waveform represents the voltage equivalent of current of PV A high transient is found in voltage and current waveform
cell. This figure is when the duty cycle is 30% and of the solar panel during the turn on time of the gate pulse of
Vpv=28.1V and current in voltage term is 1.07v.That means the MOSFET. Due to this some measurement error occurs.
PV cell MPP is not achieved. In implementing P&O algorithm the duty cycle as observed
is always oscillating after reaching MPP. This can be
improved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We acknowledge DRDO for funding the development of this

work. We also acknowledge Mr. Ranjit K. Paul for his
technical assistance.

REFERENCES
Fig 11: MPPT output with.duty cycle is 30%
[1]. H.P.GARG, J.Prakash “Solar Energy Fundamentals and Applications”,
First Revised Edition, Tata Mc Graw Hill Publishing Company Limited.
[2]. Frank Kreith, Jan F.Kreider “Principles of Solar Engineering”, 2nd
Edition, Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, Mc Graw Hill Book
Company.
[3]. Ashish Pandey, Nivedita Dasgupta, and Ashok Kumar
Mukkerjee,“High-Performance Algorithms for Drift Avoidance and
Fast Tracking in Solar MPPT System,” IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 681–689, June 2008.
[4]. Chen-Chi Chu, Chieh-Li-Chen, “Robust maximum power point tracking
method for photovoltaic cells: A Sliding mode control approach”
Fig 12: duty cycle is 83% Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, USA, march,2009.
Fig 12.shows when MPP has been reached; the duty cycle [5]. Jiyong Li , Honghua Wang, “A Novel Stand-alone PV Generation
is 83%. Now Vpv = 17.3V and Ipv = 2.77V System Based on Variable Step Size INC MPPT and SVPWM Control” ,
Proc. of IEEE Conference IPEMC, 2009, pp 2155-2160
D. Performance of the system with and without MPPT. [6]. D.P.Hohm , M.E.Ropp “Comparative Study of Maximum Power Point
Tracking Algorithms” PROGRESS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS:
Table 1 shows the following results as obtained and RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS Prog.Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2003:
compared with and without the MPPT connected to the system. 11: pp 47-62.
Table 1: Power comparison with MPPT and Without MPPT

Light Results without MPPT Results with MPPT

Inten
-sity voltage Equiva- Power voltage Equiva- Power
in (Vp) in V lent (Vp) in lent
LUX current V current
(Vcu) in (Vcu) in
V V
55 2.05 0.8 1.64 9.42 0.642 6.047
210 2 0.94 1.88 10.3 0.700 7.21
360 8.5 3.48 29.58 23.2 1.6 37.12