Search Results for Venkata Anjani Kumar G

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems have gained importance as one of the major renewable energy technologies because of its clean and sustainable characteristics; however, PV nonlinear current-voltage and power-voltage characteristics are a significant factor in limiting the maximum available power determined by the amount of available power under different environmental and load conditions. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms are one of the most important performance enhancements to help make PV energy conversion systems more efficient and reliable. Conventional MPPT techniques such as Perturb and Observe (P&O) have been widely used due to their simple and easy implementation in terms of control strategies, however, they exhibit steady-state oscillations, slow convergence, and poor dynamic performance under fast changing conditions of irradiation and load. To overcome these limitations, validation of intelligent and bio-inspired optimization and MPPT algorithms have attracted a great deal of interest. This paper includes a comprehensive comparative analysis of three MPPT techniques that are: conventional P&O algorithm, Grey Wolf Optimization algorithm (GWO), and Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization algorithm (TLBO). A detailed model of PV system coupled with dc-dc boost converter is built in Matlab/Simulink and the algorithms are tested with a constant irradiation and variable load and with simultaneous irradiation and load variation. Performance criteria like tracking performance, speed of convergence, steady state oscillations and robustness under dynamic conditions are analyzed. Based on the simulation results it is proven that both GWO and TLBO clearly outperforms the conventional P&O algorithm. Amongst all the optimization-based approaches, TLBO provides good performance with near-instantaneous convergence, minimum oscillations and consistent tracking efficiency is close to 100% for all the tested scenarios. The results prove that TLBO-based MPPT offers solid and computationally efficient solution for real world applications of PV systems especially in those with frequent and random operating condition variation environment.