Linear extrapolated MPPT - an alternative to fractional open circuit voltage technique

With increase in consumption of fossil fuels, the requirement for utilizing renewable energy is on the raise. Solar energy being one of them can be converted into electrical energy with the help of photovoltaic (PV) modules. But these modules have nonlinear Power-Voltage (P-V) characteristics due to which several algorithms have been proposed to estimate the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of a PV module. Fractional Open Circuit voltage (FOCV) is one of the simplest Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms by which impedance matching can be done in a PV system. FOCV requires periodic determination of open circuit voltage to approximate MPP of the PV panel being used, which results in temporary loss of power. In this article, an alternative approach, Linear extrapolated MPPT (LEMPPT) is used to approximate MPP which doesn't require the disconnection of load and since the load disconnection directly affects the sampling rate, LEMPPT has an added advantage of being able to sample frequently thereby making it more responsive to the environment. The proposed algorithm was designed in Matlab/SIMULINK and the results are compared with FOCV technique.