ICSET 2008
Multi-mode MPPT Control for Improved Efficiency
Jung-Min Kwon, Student Member, IEEE, Woo-Young Choi, Student Member, IEEE, and Bong-Hwan Kwon, Member, IEEE
Abstract—A multi-mode maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) control for wide photovoltaic (PV) voltage range and
improved efficiency is proposed in this paper. This MPPT control
is fitted for the two-stage PV power system which is composed of
a step-up converter and a step-down inverter. In the low PV
voltage, the step-up converter performs the MPPT. On the other
hand, in the high PV voltage, the inverter performs the MPPT
control. The proposed MPPT control makes the dc link voltage
low as soon as possible and improves the power efficiency under
the wide PV voltage range.
Index Terms— Photovoltaic power system, MPPT algorithms.
I. INTRODUCTION
E NVIROMENTAL concerns on global warming, fossil
fuel exhaustion and the need to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions have provided the stimulus to seek the renewable
energy source. In particular, solar energy has the advantages
of no pollution, low maintenance cost, no installation area
limitation and no noise due to the absence of moving parts.
The PV array exhibits an extremely nonlinear dc voltage-
ampere characteristic, which varies with array temperature and
solar insolation at all times. Under this wide PV voltage range,
it is important to extract the maximum possible power from
the PV array and provide the generated PV power to the grid
with the maximum power conversion efficiency.
As a conventional single-stage PV power system, a single-
stage inverter with a transformer is utilized [1]-[4]. The
inverter performs the MPPT control and converts the PV
power into the ac power. Its circuit has advantages that the
power system is simple and much more utility voltage options
can be selected by the transformer. However, this PV power
system only has the step-down function and the MPPT control
cannot be operated at low PV voltage such as low solar
insolation. The two-stage PV power system consists of a boost
converter and an inverter as shown in Fig. 1(a) [5]-[9]. This
system can perform step-up function from the dc-dc boost
converter and step-down function from the dc-ac inverter.
Thus, the two-stage PV power system operates under the wide
PV voltage range. In this PV power system, the step-up
converter performs the MPPT control and the dc link voltage
is maintained higher than the PV voltage and the minimum dc
link voltage that the inverter can make the sinusoidal output
voltage. However, the operation of the step-up converter in
Manuscript received June 4, 2008.
The authors are with the Department of Electronic and Electrical
Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang 790-784, Kyungbuk, Korea (e-mail:
jmkwon@postech.ac.kr; keen7@postech.ac.kr; bhkwon@postech.ac.kr).
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978-1-4244-1888-6/08/$25.00 
c 2008 IEEE
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Lb
+ + step-down
VPV Vdc full-bridge
Cdc inverter
Sb
PV
array
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Two-stage PV system.
(a) Example of the circuit configuration.
(b) Inverter control diagram.
high PV voltage deteriorates the power efficiency and high dc
link voltage generates high ripple current in the line current.
Many MPPT controls which extract the maximum power
from the PV array have been developed [10]-[14]. Among
them, the most commonly used method is the perturb-and-
observe (P&O) method, which can be applied to various PV
power systems. In the P&O method, the operating voltage of
the PV array is perturbed in order to find the direction change
for maximizing power. If power increases, then the operating
voltage is further perturbed in the same direction, whereas if it
decreases, then the direction of operating voltage perturbation
is reversed.
In this paper, a multi-mode MPPT control for two-stage PV
power system is proposed. When the PV voltage is lower than
the minimum dc link voltage, the MPPT control is performed
in the boost converter as the conventional two-stage PV power
system. On the contrary, when the PV voltage is higher than
the minimum dc link voltage, the MPPT control is performed
in the inverter as the conventional single-stage PV power
system. The proposed MPPT control makes the dc link voltage
low as soon as possible and improves the power efficiency
under the wide PV voltage range. Also, the proposed MPPT
control uses a power hysteresis to track the MPP more
correctly.
 start

A update VPV, IPV, Vdc

PPV = VPVIPV

B
PPV ” Ppast B1
no
yes

B2 Ppast= PPV
PPV • Preverse Preverse = Ppast Ph
no

yes XOR flag

Ppast = PPV
B3 Preverse = Ppast Ph

flag = 0
no
yes
C D
C3
Db = 0
no
yes D2
Db = 0
no
C2 yes
Vdc,ref > Vdc,min
no D1
C1 yes

decrease Vdc,ref increase Db increase Vdc,ref decrease Db

Return

Fig. 2. Flowchart of the proposed multi-mode MPPT control.

II. MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING Ph = Ppast

Preverse = 0
(1)
The two-stage PV power system is composed of the dc-dc flag = 0
boost converter as a booster MPPT mode and the dc-ac
V dc , ref = V dc for V dc > V dc , min
inverter as an inverter MPPT mode. The proposed multi-mode
MPPT control has a booster MPPT mode and an inverter = V dc , min for V dc < V dc , min
MPPT mode. When the MPP voltage is lower than the
minimum dc link voltage Vdc,min, the MPPT control is where Ph, Ppast, and Preverse denote the power hysteresis for
performed in the step-up converter as the booster MPPT mode. MPPT, the past power, and the comparative power which
The inverter regulates the dc link voltage Vdc and the reference changes the MPPT direction. flag denotes the MPPT direction.
dc link voltage Vdc,ref remains at the minimum dc link voltage The flag is 0 when the MPP voltage is lower than the present
Vdc,min. On the contrary, when the MPP voltage is higher than
PV voltage. Otherwise, the flag is 1. Moreover, Db denotes the
the minimum dc link voltage Vdc,min, the MPPT control is
duty ratio of the step-up boost converter.
performed in the inverter as an inverter MPPT mode. In this
In stage A of the flowchart, the recent PV power PPV is
mode, the step-up converter does not operate and the inverter
is only operated by changing the dc link voltage. Thus, the calculated by measuring the PV voltage VPV and the PV
power efficiency is increased because the step-up converter current IPV.
does not operate in the inverter MPPT mode. The flowchart of In stage B, the direction of the MPPT is determined. The
the proposed MPPT control is shown in Fig. 2. comparative power Preverse which changes the MPPT direction
The measurement errors disturb the MPPT control. has a hysteresis characteristic considering power hysteresis Ph
Therefore, the MPPT control requires the consideration of as follows:
these problems. To overcome these problems, the proposed
MPPT control uses a power hysteresis. Prior to starting the Preverse = Ppast − Ph (2)
MPPT control, all of the parameters are initialized as follows:

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 TABLE I
PCS PARAMETERS
PCS parameters value
grid voltage 3-phase 380V, 60Hz
switching frequency of switches fs = 10kHz
input filter capacitor Cf = 10ȝF
input inductor Lb = 2mH
dc link capacitor Cdc = 2350ȝF
minimum dc link voltage Vdc,min = 630V

TABLE II
PV STRING SPECIFICATIONS
PV array specifications PV 1 PV 2
rated power 10kW 10kW
rated voltage 400V 650V
rated current 25A 15.4A
open-circuit voltage 500V 780V

Fig. 3. Prototype of the two-stage PV PCS.

where Ppast is the PV power updated at the previous cycle.
[B1: PPV > Ppast] The present PV power PPV is greater than the
previous PV power Ppast and the MPPT direction is a correct
direction to MPP. Ppast and Preverse are updated and the MPPT
direction remains unchanged.
[B2: PPV ” Ppast and PPV < Preverse] The present PV power PPV
is less than the previous PV power Ppast and also less than
comparative power Preverse which changes the MPPT direction.
Thus, the MPPT direction is an incorrect direction to MPP.
The MPPT direction flag is changed in contrary. Ppast and
Preverse are updated and the MPPT direction is reversed.
[B3: PPV ” Ppast and PPV • Preverse] The present PV power PPV
is less than the previous PV power Ppast but greater than the
power Preverse for the MPPT direction. In this case, the MPPT
direction remains unchanged. Thus, the proposed MPPT
method can track the MPP faster and more correctly even
though large measurement error exists.
If the flag is 0, then the stage C is executed and the PV
voltage is decreased. Otherwise, the stage D is executed and
the PV voltage is increased.
[C1: Db = 0 and Vdc,ref > Vdc,min] The step-up converter does not
operate and the reference dc link voltage Vdc,ref is higher than
the minimum dc link voltage Vdc,min. The PV voltage VPV and
dc link voltage Vdc are almost the same voltage because the
step-up converter does not operate. In this case, by decreasing
the reference dc link voltage Vdc,ref, the PV voltage VPV is
decreased.
[C2: Db = 0 and Vdc,ref < Vdc,min] The step-up converter does not
operate and the reference dc link voltage Vdc,ref is lower than
the minimum dc link voltage Vdc,min. By increasing the duty
ratio of step-up converter, the dc link voltage Vdc is increased
and the PV voltage VPV is decreased.
[C3: Db > 0] If the duty ratio of the step-up converter is not
zero, the PV voltage VPV is lower than the dc link voltage. In
this case, by increasing the duty ratio Db of step-up converter,
the PV voltage VPV is decreased.
[D1: Db = 0] The step-up converter does not operate. In this
case, by increasing the reference dc link voltage Vdc,ref, the PV
voltage VPV and the dc link voltage Vdc are increased.
[D2: Db > 0] When the boost converter operates, by decreasing
the duty ratio Db of the step-up converter, the PV voltage VPV
is increased.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The hardware circuit of the typical two-stage PV power
system 10kW consisted of the boost converter and the three-
phase inverter was implemented to verify the proposed MPPT
control as shown in Fig. 3. The PV power system is required
to cope with wide PV voltage range. The major components
and parameters of the hardware circuit used for experiments
are presented in Table I. The proposed MPPT control is
implemented in software using a single-chip microcontroller
(Microchip dsPIC30F6015) and it is performed every sample
period 100ms.
Two practical applications are considered. The selected PV
array specifications are presented in Table II. In case of the
PV 1, the MPP voltage is lower than the minimum dc link
voltage. Then the MPPT control is performed in the booster
MPPT mode and the dc link voltage is controlled as the
minimum dc link voltage by the inverter. On the contrary, the
MPP voltage of the PV 2 is higher than the minimum dc link
voltage. Then the MPPT control is performed in the inverter
MPPT mode and the dc link voltage remains as the PV voltage
without any voltage increase by the boost converter. The
conventional MPPT control is based on the booster MPPT
control and the dc link voltage is controlled as 750V by the
inverter to cope with the rated PV voltage range of the PV
power system. Fig. 4 shows the power efficiency between the
proposed MPPT control and the conventional MPPT control.
The proposed MPPT control reduces voltage stress of the
power semiconductor switches than that of the conventional
MPPT control. Thus the power efficiency is increased by 1.0%
at the PV voltage 300V and by 0.3% at the PV voltage 700V.
Since the proposed MPPT control makes the dc link voltage
low as soon as possible, the diode reverse-recovery loss of the
boost converter is reduced in the booster MPPT mode.
Moreover, the diode reverse-recovery loss does not exist in the
inverter MPPT mode.
The perturbing power variation for searching the MPP is
dependent on the power hysteresis Ph. If the power hysteresis

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Power Efficiency [%]
97
96
95
94
93
Proposed Control
Conventional Control
92
91
300 400 500 600
PV voltage [V]
Fig.4. Power efficiency.
Fig. 5. Instantaneous PV array power.
Ph is too small, the MPPT control becomes very sensitive and
can be easily disturbed by the measurement uncertainty even
though averaged sensing data is used. For proper MPPT
operation, the power hysteresis Ph should be greater than the
maximum measurement error. However, a large power
hysteresis Ph decreases the MPPT efficiency at a low
insolation. To overcome this problem, a variable power
hysteresis Ph relative to the PV power is used. Thus, the
perturbing power variation is minimized and the MPPT
efficiency is increased. The variable power hysteresis Ph is
adopted as
Ph = k h PPV + Poffset
where kh and Poffset are a proportional factor and an offset
power, respectively. The offset power Poffset is selected as a
maximum measurement error 0.2% of the PV power system.
To track the MPP, the constant value of kh should be higher
than the maximum peak-to-peak PV power variation at rated
PV power. The value kh is selected as a value 0.01 higher than
the maximum peak-to-peak PV power variation at rated PV
power. In case of the PV 1, the maximum PV string power is
10kW and the measured average PV power is 9.96kW. Then,
the MPPT efficiency is 99.6% as shown in Fig. 5. On the other
hand, the measured average input power of the PV 2 is 9.94kW
where the MPPT efficiency becomes 99.4%. Thus the
proposed MPPT control gives high MPPT efficiency tracking
the maximum power point correctly.
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IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS
A multi-mode MPPT control for wide PV voltage range and
improved efficiency is proposed in this paper. This MPPT
control is fitted for the two-stage PV power system which is
composed of a step-up converter and a step-down inverter. In
the low PV voltage, the step-up converter performs the MPPT
control. On the other hand, in the high PV voltage, the inverter
performs the MPPT control without increasing the dc link
voltage. The proposed MPPT control makes the dc link
voltage low as soon as possible and improves the power
efficiency under the wide PV voltage range. Also, the
proposed MPPT control uses a variable power hysteresis to
700
track the MPP more correctly.
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