Maximum Power Point Tracking for Photovoltaic Using Incremental Conductance Method

Abstract

Solar energy is a potential energy source in Indonesia.A photovoltaic is needed to harvest this kind of energy, and to be able to gather the most, the PV must have a good efficiency. The maximum efficiency is achieved when PV works at its maximum power point which depends on irradiation and temperature. Since the irradiation and temperature always change with time, a PV system which able to track the maximum power point needs to be developed to produce more energy. This research was aimed to explore the performance of a maximum power point tracking system which implements Incremental Conductance (IC) method. The IC algorithm was designed to control the duty cycle of Buck Boost converter and to ensure the MPPT work at its maximum efficiency. The system performance of IC algorithm was compared to widely used algorithm - Perturb and Observe (P&O) on a Simulink environment. From the simulation, the IC method shows a better performance and also has a lower oscillation.