Study of maximum power tracking techniques and control of DC/DC converters for photovoltaic power system

Abstract

As the electric power supplied by solar arrays depends on the insolation, temperature and array voltage, it is necessary to control the operating points to draw the maximum power of the solar array. The object of this paper is to investigate the maximum power tracking algorithms which were often used to compare the tracking efficiencies for the system operating under different controls. Besides, different type DC/DC converters were designed to evaluate the converter performance. A simple method which combines a discrete time control and a PI compensator is used to track the maximum power points (MPPs) of the solar array. The implementation of the proposed converter system was based on a digital signal processor (DSP) and the experimental results are presented.