Application and Analysis of Incremental Conductance Algorithm for A Photovoltaic System with Variable DC Output Voltage

This paper presents an analytical and experimental evaluation of the incremental conductance algorithm effectiveness in tracking the maximum power in a photovoltaic system with a varying dc voltage output. Generally, the output voltage of a photovoltaic remains around its nominal for the entire time of operation, either by mean of a controller or connected in parallel to another voltage source. The incremental conductance is implemented using the boost converter through direct control method to control its duty cycle. The ability and performance of the incremental conductance to react and recover from disturbances is predetermined from analyzing the circuit and validated from an experiment. The experiment is conducted indoor to isolate other factors than irradiance to affect the solar panel performance and to satisfy with the assumption made in circuit analysis. An artificial light source is used to create disturbances through changes in irradiance. The results show that the predictions and the experimental results are in agreement. The contributions of this study are made in several aspects, including analysis of the algorithm in this particular case, mathematical modelling and experimental setup.