A Review and New Problems Discovery of Four Simple Decentralized Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms—Perturb and Observe, Incremental Conductance, Golden Section Search, and Newton’s Quadratic Interpolation

Abstract

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) enables photovoltaic (PV) systems to extract as much solar energy as possible. Depending on which type of controller is used, PV systems can be classified as centralized MPPT (CMPPT) or decentralized MPPT (DMPPT). In substring-level systems, it is known that the energy yield of DMPPT can outweigh the power electronics cost. At the substring level, it is usually assumed that the PV curve exhibits a single peak, even under partial shading. Thus, the control algorithms for DMPPT are usually less complicated than those employed in CMPPT systems. This paper provides a comprehensive review of four simple DMPPT algorithms, which are perturb and observe (P&O), incremental conductance (INC), golden section search (GSS), and Newton's quadratic interpolation (NQI). The comparison of these algorithms are done from the perspective of numerical analysis. Guidelines on how to set initial conditions and convergence criteria are thoroughly explained. This is of great interest to PV engineers when selecting algorithms for use in MPPT implementations. In addition, various problems that have never previously been identified before are highlighted and discussed. For instance, the problems of NQI trap is identified and methods on how to mitigate it are also discussed. All the algorithms are tested under various conditions including static, dynamic, and rapid changes of irradiance. Both simulation and experimental results indicate that P&O and INC are the best algorithms for DMPPT.

Simulation and Analysis of Perturbation and Observation-Based Self-Adaptable Step Size Maximum Power Point Tracking Strategy with Low Power Loss for Photovoltaics

“…P t1 + P t2 + P t3 + P t4 P theo = 59.84 × 4 59.98W × 4 × 100% = 99.77% (20) The power loss in the P&O algorithm is expressed as 0.54% and 0.23% for the proposed control. The simulation result is close to the calculation in the submitted manuscript.…”

“…For example, increasing the temperature results in a slight increase in the short-circuit current and a significant decrease in the open-circuit voltage, which reduces the maximum output power. maximum output point called the maximum power point (MPP) [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. For the PV system operated with higher efficiency, an MPP tracking (MPPT) controller is indispensable; the tracking methodologies are introduced in detail in the MPPT section of this report.…”

“…For the PV system operated with higher efficiency, an MPP tracking (MPPT) controller is indispensable; the tracking methodologies are introduced in detail in the MPPT section of this report. For a PV system with an MPPT controller, the structure can be depicted as consisting of a PV panel, a power converter [7,8,16,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], an MPPT controller, and a load (including but not limited to motors, batteries, heaters, energy-storage systems, and other electric appliances). The structure of the PV system is shown in Figure 1.…”

Continuous-Input Continuous-Output Current Buck-Boost DC/DC Converters for Renewable Energy Applications: Modelling and Performance Assessment

“…Various maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques have been developed to maximize the RES extracted power efficiently [7][8][9]. These converters can be placed in standalone or two-stage grid tied configurations [8][9][10][11].…”

Direct Fixed-Step Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms with Adaptive Perturbation Frequency

“…Comparison of different MPPT algorithms presented in the literature so far may be found [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Owing to their inherently generic nature and relatively simple implementation, direct non-model-based techniques, such as perturb and observe (PO) [12,13], incremental conductance [14,15] and extremum seeking or ripple correlation control [16][17][18][19][20], are probably the most widely applied MPPT methods.…”