Experimental study of the equivalence of the Adaptive Incremental Conductance (AIC) and the Adaptive Perturb and Observe (APO) algorithms for PV systems maximum power tracking

This work presents the formulation of the correct adaptive incremental conductance (AIC) algorithm which has been confused by some authors with the adaptive P and O (APO) algorithm. By means of simulation and the experimental implementation of these algorithms for maximum power point tracking (AIC and APO), it is shown that their performance under static and dynamic conditions are similar, in agreement with previous results for the conventional IC and P and O algorithms. The relation for the optimum scaling factors for both the AIC and APO algorithms is established here. It is concluded that the AIC algorithm is adequate to implement in cases where a small adaptive scaling factor for the APO algorithm would be a very sensitive parameter to the variation of the PV array parameters. Experimental power tracking efficiencies above 98% have been obtained when both algorithms are used under dynamic operation of a DC-DC converter to be used in a dual stage micro-converter for connecting PV modules directly to the grid.