Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

A low cost controller of PV system based on Arduino board and INC

algorithm
O. Oussalem ⇑, M. Kourchi, A. Rachdy, M. Ajaamoum, H. Idadoub, S. Jenkal
LASIME (Engineering Science and Energy Management Laboratory) ENSA, Agadir, Morocco

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Photovoltaic (PV) systems offer a very competitive solution as an alternative energy source, but they have
Received 4 June 2019 a low efficiency. To overcome the problem of solar panel performance and achieve maximum efficiency, it
Received in revised form 20 July 2019 is necessary to optimize the design of all parts of the PV photovoltaic chain. Then we insert a stage of
Accepted 24 July 2019
adaptation between the photovoltaic generator (GPV) and the load. This stage which is controlled by a
Available online 7 September 2019
microcontroller, will allow the system to search and reach the maximum power point (MPP). This algo-
rithm is among of other ones which are widely used in PV systems for their easy implementation as well
Keywords:
as their low cost. This algorithm was analyzed and its performance was evaluated by using the Arduino
PV
MPPT
board via Matlab-Simulink tool.
Arduino Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Incremental conductance (INC) Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
Matlab-Simulink ence on Plasma and Energy Materials ICPEM2019.

1. Introduction This article is divided into five parts: After the introduction, the
second part gives a general description of a photovoltaic system.
In line with, its energy strategy which aims to achieve energy The third part deals with the interface based on the Arduino board
independence, Morocco has accorded high priority to convert to under the Matlab-Simulink environment. The fourth one will be
the renewable energies and especially solar thermal and photo- dedicated to the experimental results of the system studied.
voltaic energy [1]. Finally, this study finishes with a conclusion.
Photovoltaic energy is a solution for the production of renew-
able energy based on a photovoltaic generator (GPV) from the solar 2. Photovoltaic system
flux. In its operation a GPV has non-linear characteristics, which
depend among other things on the illumination, the temperature The photovoltaic system under study consists of four blocks as
of the cell and also on the characteristics of the charge. An adaptive shown in Fig. 1. The first block represents the photovoltaic emula-
stage is inserted between the GPV and the load. This stage allows tor, the second block is the static converter DC-DC Buck-Boost, the
driving the system to the maximum power point (MPP). third block represents the DC load and the fourth one is the system
The aim of this work is the design and realization for the control controller.
of different parties of a photovoltaic system by low cost board
(Arduino board) via the Matlab-Simulink software. The PV system 2.1. PV emulator
is customized by an ‘‘incremental” strategy which is a type of MPPT
algorithms that will ensure the achievement of the maximum The PV panels are depends on climatic conditions, that’s why
power provided by the PV module [2,3]. we chose to employ a PV emulator.
Various results are presented in this article in order to validate This PV emulator is an electronic power system able to repro-
this control platform as being the most cost-effective and efficient duce the characteristics of the solar panel, and which has the fol-
for the optimization of the photovoltaic chain. lowing characteristics [4]:

It consists of three independent blocks emulating solar panels;

Voltage of open circuit is 20 V;
⇑ Corresponding author.

Short-circuit current up to 2 A;
E-mail address: [email protected] (O. Oussalem).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.689
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Plasma and Energy Materials ICPEM2019.
 O. Oussalem et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109 105

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of PV system with MPPT.

Displays voltage and current variables on integrated displays for

each of the three blocks; Fig. 3. The characteristic I (V) of the PV emulator for G = 400 w/m2.

Simulation adjustable intensities of solar irradiation, each of the
three blocks.

For an irradiation of 400 W/m2, the characteristics (I–V) and (P–

V) of the photovoltaic emulator are illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

2.2. Static converter

The main role of the Buck-Boost power converter is to ensure

impedance matching, so that the output of the PV emulator deliv-
ers the maximum energy.
The electronic circuit corresponding to the Buck-Boost realized
(Fig. 4), is essentially based around the power MOSFET transistor,
type IRF730, driven by the Arduino control board via a driver, as
well as a diode, and passive components (L, C) ensuring the
smoothing and filtering of the current electric [5]. Fig. 4. Circuit of Buck-Boost converter.
The main variables characterizing the Buck-Boost converter
[5,6] are:
a aV e
The output voltage is : V s ¼ Ve ð1Þ The current ripple : DIL ¼ ð3Þ
1a Lf

1a aI s a2 V e
The output current is : Is ¼ Ie ð2Þ The voltage ripple : DV C ¼ ¼ ð4Þ
a Cf ð1  aÞRCf
With:

a: The duty cycle of the PWM signal or PWM.

f: The frequency of the PWM signal.

VC: voltage across the capacitor.

IL: current through the coil.

R: resistive load.

L and C: inductor and capacitor constituting the filter. The filter
values are: L  0.9 mH and C  27 mF.

2.3. PWM generator

There are a lot of generators of PWM signal, the used one is

based on the TL494 component. This is an integrated circuit of
pulse width modulation control for fixed frequency signals. The
circuit accompanying the TL494 component is described in the
electrical schema of Fig. 5 [7].
This generator can operate at frequencies up to 400 kHz.
According to technical documents of TL494 builder, the approxi-
mate oscillation frequency is determined by [7]:
1:1
fc ¼ ð5Þ
2
Fig. 2. The characteristic P (V) of the PV emulator for G = 400 W/m . Rt C t
106 O. Oussalem et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109

Fig. 5. PWM generator based on the TL494 circuit.

The duty cycle of the PWM signal is controlled by a voltage that based on the knowledge of the GPV Conductor Variation and Posi-
varies from 0 V to 2.5 V. The Mosfet used must be controlled by a tion Consequences operation in relation to a MPP [8].
PWM signal greater than 7 V, for that reason, a driver was realized Fig. 6 shows that the maximum power can then be tracked
for amplifying the signal of the PWM generator. by making comparisons to each moment of the value of the
To follow the MPP, the platform needs two sensors: current and conductance (Ipv/Vpv) with that of the increment ofConduc-
voltage sensor. The voltage measurement is performed from a volt- tance (DIpv/DVpv). Vr corresponds to the reference voltage
age divider to have a voltage between 0 and 5 V. The output of this and forces the GPV to operate at this value. If you are at the
divider drives a follower amplifier realized by the circuit ‘‘LM324” PPM, then the voltage Vr corresponds well to the optimum volt-
to the impedance matching. However the current measurement is age Vopt. Once the PPM is reached, the operation can be main-
done by a shunt resistor of 1 X. tained on this position until a variation of DIpv. This then
indicates a change in climatic conditions, so a new MPCs
3. MPPT strategy and support package for Arduino board search. For this, the algorithm increments or decrements the
value of Vr up to reach the MPP [9].
The strategy of maximizing the power from a photovoltaic Matlab (Matrix laboratory) is a fourth-generation programming
source is to seek the optimum operating point. This technique is language, developed by MathWorks. Matlab has provided a tool
called: the MPPT strategy. books for Arduino called the support package, which includes a
There are several types of MPPT strategies, among which is the Simulink block library to configure and access the sensors, actua-
incremental conductance (INC) command, which this technique is tors and Arduino communication interfaces [10].

Fig. 6. Conventional flow chart of the MPPT control type ‘incremental conductance’.
 O. Oussalem et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109 107

This developed configuration (Fig. 7) is for the treaty system, The PV emulator offers the possibility to choose the G value of
based on the Simulink environment. the irradiation by selecting one of the two values 400 and
600 W/m2, in order to see the influence of the ‘incremental conduc-
4. Experimental result tance’ strategy on the PV emulator’s output power (Ppv).
Fig. 9 describes the evolution of the PV emulator’s output power
The experimental realization of the photovoltaic system under for the irradiation G = 400 W/m2.
study, as shown in the Fig. 8, is composed of a PV emulator, a Those figures illustrate the curves of the PV emulator’s output
Buck-Boost chopper, sensors of Ipv (PV emulator current) and power Ppv as a function of the time and of the voltage Vpv. These
Vpv (PV emulator voltage), a resistive load, and an Arduino Mega curves are processed in order to show that the photovoltaic system
board. realized was able to seek and follow the power supplied and to
The experimental test of the studied system should start by reach the output power around the maximum power point (MPP)
attacking the Arduino board, by the program of the ‘incremental at around 13 W for an irradiation of G = 400 w/m2.
conductance’ strategy treated previously. It is also remarkable in Fig. 10, that the system following its
It is noted that during the experimental process, some adapta- curves of the PV emulator’s output power in function of the voltage
tions and calibrations were made between the various variables and of the time, behaves by the same way in a second test for irra-
treated in the photovoltaic system. Thus the system can search diation G = 600 w/m2. So it was able to reach the output power
for and converge towards the point of maximum power. around its new maximum power point (around of 16 W).

Fig. 7. Control Simulink interface.

Fig. 8. The parts of the designed PV chain.

108 O. Oussalem et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109

Fig. 9. The curves of the system in function of voltage and time for G = 400 W/m2.

Fig. 10. The PPM of the system the in function of voltage and of the time for G = 600 W/m2.

Fig. 11. The curves of the system the in function of voltage and of the time when changing G from 400 W/m2to 600 W/m2.
 O. Oussalem et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 104–109 109

The interest by changing the irradiation G suddenly from roborated as a cost-effective device for optimizing photovoltaic
400 W/m2 to 600 W/m2, is to observe the system behaviour at this chain.
immediate change of the irradiation and following its robustness As a perspective to this work, it is recommended to develop this
to reach its maximum power point, the system give a tool to inves- realization for different types of PV modules, for different MPPT
tigate the efficiency of this realization carried out. strategies and via different electronic boards.
As illustrated in Fig. 11 and by only the both irradiations tested.
The system looks for and follows the new values of the maximum References
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