Voltage-Sensor-Based MPPT for Stand-Alone PV Systems Through Voltage Reference Control

A single voltage-sensor-based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller with improved tracking performance is presented in this paper. The MPPT controller can be implemented by either direct duty cycle or voltage reference control in conjunction with a proportional and integral (PI) controller. The voltage reference control has the advantages of faster convergence and small oscillations in steady state compared with the direct duty cycle method. Moreover, the controller gains can be analytically calculated unlike trial-and-error-based selection of scaling factors for the direct duty cycle method. Thus, voltage-sensor-based MPPT algorithm through a voltage reference control technique with the help of the PI controller is developed for minimizing the tracking time and steady-state oscillations. Selection of the objective function to mitigate the drawbacks associated with the voltage-sensor-based algorithm for a decrease in solar irradiance is also demonstrated. The tracking performance of the proposed algorithm is tested through simulation and experimentation of the designed prototype.