Author : Dipali N More and A.V.Naik

Photovoltaic systems have been used for many decades. Today, with the focus on greener sources of power, PV has become an important source of power for a wide range of applications. Improvements in converting light energy into electrical energy as well as the cost reductions have helped to create this growth. Even with higher efficiency and lower cost, the goal remains to maximize the power from the PV system under various lighting conditions. The algorithm detects the maximum power point of the PV. The computed maximum power is used as a reference value (set point) of the control system. ON/OFF power controller with hysteresis band is used to control the operation of a Buck chopper such that the PV module always operates at its maximum power computed from the MPPT algorithm.

Keywords: Photovoltaic, maximum power point tracking, perturb and observe

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.1 (Feb-2017)