Incremental Conductance MPPT Method for PV

Systems

A. Safari and S. Mekhilef
University of Malaya, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
saad@um.edu.my

Abstract- This paper presents incremental conductance method
for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using DC-DC cuk
converter. Comprehensive analysis and simulation of KC85T
solar module and equivalent electric circuit are provided while
effects of various environmental conditions on the PV module
behavior is investigated. In order to fully understand the PV
module working specifications fundamental characteristics of
PV cells are discussed. Block diagram model of a PV module
was developed in Simulink for plotting the curves. KC85T solar
module is used in simulations and results indicate speed and
accuracy of the proposed system.
Keywords: Solar energy; Photovoltaic (PV) systems; maximum
power point tracking (MPPT); Matlab Simulation; Cuk
Converter.

I. INTRODUCTION
In the past few years, solar energy conversion is widely
used to produce electricity. A comparative study of the world
energy consumption released by International Energy Agency
shows that in 2050, more than 45% of necessary energy in the
world will be solely produced by solar arrays [1-4].
The basic structure unit of a solar system is the PV module,
which itself is composed of solar cells. A solar cell converts
energy in the photons of sunlight into electricity by means of
the photoelectric phenomenon found in certain types of
semiconductor materials such as silicon and selenium. An
individual solar cell can only produce a small amount of
power. To increase the electrical output power of a system,
solar cells are generally connected in series or parallel to form
PV modules [5-7]. Operating point of solar cells depends on
many factors such as temperature, insolation, spectral
characteristics of sunlight and so on. Changes in insolation on
panels due to fast climatic changes such as cloudy weather
and ambient temperature can change the photovoltaic array
output power. Another noteworthy characteristic is that
output power of photovoltaic systems is non-linear and
depends on above mentioned factors thus they do not perform
with desirable efficiency [8-15]. To overcome this problem,
maximum power point trackers are used to make full
utilization of PV modules and minimize the power failure due
to environmental conditions. However, as the first step in
developing the photovoltaic systems performance, it is
necessary to figure out an accurate and precise model of PV
modules.
In this paper block diagram model of a PV module is
proposed for plotting curves due to change in the
environmental conditions. Accordingly, a system is designed
to track MPPTs using cuk converter and incremental
conductance is used to track the MPPs.
II. SIMULATIONS OF PV MODULE CHARACTERISTICS
Each PV module can be characterized by its I-V curve.
Three points on the I-V curve are important in defining the
performance of a PV module; the maximum power point, the
short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage.
- The maximum power point (MPP) is the point on the I-V
curve at which the PV module operates with maximum output
power. This point corresponds to the Impp and Vmpp.
- The short-circuit current (Isc) is the maximum output
current of a module on the I-V curve which happens when
output voltage is zero.
- The open-circuit voltage (Voc) is the maximum output
voltage of a module on the I-V curve which happens when
output current is zero.
























(a)

(b)
Fig. 1. KC85T module I-V (a) and P-V (b) curves at various
temperatures
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Fig. 2 shows the I-V and P-V curves at different levels of
irradiance when temperature is constant at 25C.
There are three factors that mainly affect the performance
of any PV system; solar irradiation, ambient temperature and
electric load operating condition. There is no control over the
first two factors, however by controlling the switching of a
converter the load conditioning can be provided. Cuk
converter is a DC-DC converter in which power transmission
is carried out using an ideal switch.
The basic structure of cuk converter is presented in Fig.3.
It is used as the power circuit of MPPT and IGBT switch is
controlled by incremental conductance algorithm.
The cuk converter is designed based on the specifications
in table 1.
Maximum power point of a PV module is always
fluctuating in an interval during operation depending on the
cell type, irradiation and cell temperature, so the main job for
the MPPT is to control the PV system and run it near its
maximum power point. IncCond method offers good
performance under quick changing circumstances; it is also






























III. THE CUK CONVERTER AND MPPT ALGORITHM

simple and can be implemented using low cost
microcontrollers [9-14].

























Simulations were performed to further clarify the
characteristics of this method. Different operating conditions
on the system are analyzed and the performance of the whole
system is investigated.
The exact location of the MPP in an IV curve is not
known beforehand and is changing dynamically in an interval
depending on solar irradiance and ambient temperature. Fig. 4
shows a set of I-V curves under increasing irradiance at
temperature 25C. As shown in Fig.4 incremental
conductance method establish the PV module operating point
very close to the MPPs.

IV. CLOSED LOOP CONTROL
Each part of the system was simulated separately and
therefore closed loop simulation is carried out at switching
frequency of 10kHz.
In Fig.4 solar irradiation and temperature change according
to the operating conditions. The PV module electrical model
designed in section III. is used to generate voltage and
current of the module at each sampling time. MATLAB
embedded function contains the incremental conductance
algorithm with direct control method, so it will directly
calculate the new duty cycle.
The algorithm determines the new duty cycle where the
system should move next and also replaces old values with
the new ones. The output of the algorithm will compare to a
saw tooth wave form of 10 kHz frequency and the resultant
pulses drive gate of the IGBT. Once peak power is reached
the algorithm will stay and oscillate around the MPP.
Performance of the system is tested at 25C where irradiation
is changing. At t = 0sec irradiation is at 1000w/m and at

(a)

(b)
Fig. 2. (a) I-V curves (b) P-V curves of KC85T module for different
illumination levels at 25C
TABLE 1
DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE CUK CONVERTER
Input voltage Vs 80 V
Input current Is 0-10 A (<5% ripple)
Output voltage Vo 80 V (<5% ripple)
Output current Io 0-10 A (<5% ripple)
Maximum output power Pmax 640Wp
Switching frequency F 10 KHZ
Duty cycle D 0.2<D <0.7
Load R 10

Fig. 3. Basic structure of a cuk converter
IEEE CCECE 2011 - 000346
t=400ms the illumination level suddenly changes to 400w/m
and then back to 1000w/m at t=800ms. The results shows
output power at G=1000w/m and 400w/m are 87w and 35w
respectively which are absolutely the desired output power.
Correspondent curves are presented in Fig.5. It also shows the
change in duty cycle adjusted by MPPT to extract maximum
power from the PV module.



















































V. CONCLUSION
The proposed model of PV module shows the effects of the
environmental conditions on the PV module performance.
Inspection of accuracy and precision of the model is
implemented in Matlab/ Simulink using electric parameters of
KC85T solar module. A comprehensive analysis and
simulations of PV module equivalent electric circuit was also
performed as the first step in improving the photovoltaic
power systems which can be used in all the PV simulations in
standalone and grid connected PV systems. Eventually closed
loop simulations show that incremental conductance method
can track the MPPs with high speed and accuracy and exploit
full utilization of PV modules irrespective to environmental
conditions.
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(a)

(b)
Fig.5 Power (a) and duty cycle (b) of system due to change in
irradiation

Fig.4 MPP tracking with IncCond algorithm at 25C
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