Modelling and simulation of an efficient Charge Controller for Photovoltaic System with Maximum Power Point Tracking

Design and simulation of an efficient, cost effective Charge Controller for Photovoltaic (PV) System is presented here. To harness maximum power from the PV panel, the charge controller is equipped with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) feature. An efficient algorithm for MPPT is developed which requires less iteration to reach Maximum Power Point (MPP) than the traditional Perturb and Observe (P&O) method. Only an input voltage sensor is needed for the design and algorithm to track the MPP which makes the charge controller cost effective. The performance of this charge controller is demonstrated via simulation in Powersim (PSIM) software using the parameters of a practical solar panel (Sunflower A-300). It has been found that around 50% less iterations are required to track the MPP than the tradition P&O method for the proposed algorithm.