Design and Performance Analysis of Hybrid Maximum Power Tracking Algorithms for Partially Shaded Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

Renewable energy power generation is the only alternative to meet the global energy newlinedemand and to reduce the use of fossil fuel. Among the renewable sources, solar newlinephotovoltaic (PV) power generation has many advantages like, easy installation, less newlinemaintenance and better customization for any power rating. On the other hand, the newlinecharacteristics of PV are highly nonlinear, and the maximum power is available at one newlinepoint. The position of the maximum power point (MPP) changes with changes in irradiation newlineand environmental temperature. Hence, a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) newlineis always equipped with a PV system to track the MPP and to deliver the load. The newlinecondition becomes severe when the PV array receives uneven irradiation due to nearby newlineshadows. During the shaded condition, the PV array characteristics consist of multiple newlinepower peaks and it is difficult to find the exact maximum power. newlineIn this work, a hybrid algorithm methodology is proposed to track the maximum newlinepower in PV system under different irradiation and shaded condition. The proposed newlinehybrid methodology combines meta heuristics and conventional perturb and observe newline(PO) algorithm. The meta heuristic algorithm is used to find the approximate global newlinepower peak (GPP), whereas the PO is used to find the exact MPP. Based on the proposed newlinetopology, two new hybrid algorithms, whale optimization perturb and observe (WOPO) newlineand salp swarm perturb and observe (SSPO), were developed. The WOPO and SSPO newlinealgorithms are tested under steady-state and dynamic environmental conditions. The newlineresults are compared with recent MPPT algorithms and found successful in tracking newlineMPP with faster tracking time. Moreover, a selective power point tracking (SPPT) newlinealgorithm is proposed for tracking the reduced power in the P V curve. The SPPT newlineand SSPO algorithm are combined as SSPO-SPPT algorithm. The SSPO-SPPT works newlinetogether in the search process and the SSPO is used for tracking the maximum global newlinepower, whereas the SPPT algorithm is used to track the reduced power when the load newlinedemand i