Photovoltaic based PMDC motor drive system using MPPT

In power generation, renewable energy plays an important role. With the increase in the energy demand, there is a need for a renewable energy source that will fulfil the required demand and also which is environmental friendly. When sunlight falls on a Photovoltaic (PV) module, direct current (dc) is produced and little maintenance is required for PV modules. Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) helps in ensuring that the maximum power is transferred to the load. Design, simulation and implementation of MPPT for PV module using PIC digital signal processor are mentioned in the presented work. A buck/stepdown dc-dc converter in conjunction with proper control is used to perform MPPT. Numerous methods of MPPT algorithm are available, one among them is “Perturb and Observe method (P&O)”, which operates by periodically incrementing or decrementing PV module terminal voltage or current and comparing. In P&O method present PV output power is compared with the previous set of perturbation cycle. For achieving maximum power point tracking, the P&O control algorithm for the adjustment of the step size of the duty ratio of the buck/stepdown dc-dc converter is made. Here Buck converter is used as starter as well as to meet voltage level required for driving Permanent Magnet Direct Current (PMDC) motor. Since both power and voltage variations are considered in this algorithm, it allows better performance of MPPT in driving PMDC motor.