IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 12, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2016

187

Development of an Improved P&O Algorithm

Assisted Through a Colony of Foraging Ants for
MPPT in PV System
Kinattingal Sundareswaran, Vethanayagam Vigneshkumar, Peddapati Sankar, Sishaj P. Simon,
P. Srinivasa Rao Nayak, and Sankaran Palani

AbstractThe perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm

is a simple and efficient technique, and is one of the
most commonly employed maximum power point (MPP)
tracking (MPPT) schemes for photovoltaic (PV) powergeneration systems. However, under partially shaded conditions (PSCs), P&O method miserably fails to recognize
global MPP (GMPP) and gets trapped in one of the local
MPPs (LMPPs). This paper proposes ant-colony-based
search in the initial stages of tracking followed by P&O
method. In such a hybrid approach, the global search ability
of ant-colony optimization (ACO) and local search capability of P&O method are integrated to yield faster and
efficient convergence. A theoretical analysis of the static
and dynamic convergence behavior of the proposed algorithm is presented together with computed and measured
results.
Index TermsAnt-colony optimization (ACO), maximum
power point (MPP) tracking (MPPT), photovoltaic (PV)
systems, perturb and observe (P&O).

N OMENCLATURE
Im
Vm
IO
IOn
k
q
T
A
Rs
Rs_m
Rp
Rp_m
IL

Output current of PV module (A).

Output voltage of PV module (V).
Diode saturation current (A).
Diode saturation current at nominal condition (A).
Boltzman constant (Joules/Kelvin).
Charge of an electron (coulomb).
Actual temperature of PV cell (Kelvin).
Diode ideality constant.
Series resistance of PV cell ().
Series resistance of PV module ().
Parallel resistance of PV cell ().
Parallel resistance of PV module ().
Photocurrent of PV module (A).

Manuscript received February 25, 2015; revised September 14, 2015;

accepted November 13, 2015. Date of publication November 20, 2015;
date of current version February 02, 2016. Paper no. TII-15-1032.
K. Sundareswaran, V. Vigneshkumar, S. P. Simon, and P. S. R. Nayak
are with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620015, India (e-mail:
kse@nitt.edu; v.vigneshkumar@gmail.com; sishajpsimon@nitt.edu;
psnayak@nitt.edu).
P. Sankar is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Shri Vishnu College of Engineering for Women,
Bhimavaram 534202, India (e-mail: c2sankar@gmail.com).
S. Palani is with Sudharsan Engineering College, Pudukkottai
622501, India (e-mail: sankar_poly@yahoo.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TII.2015.2502428

ILn
Tn
G
Gn
Iscn
Vtn
Vocn
Ki
Eg
ns
np

Photocurrent PV module at the nominal condition (A).

Nominal temperature

 (Kelvin).
2
.
Actual irradiation kW/m

2
Nominal irradiation kW/m .
Nominal short-circuit current (A).
Nominal thermal voltage (V).
Nominal open-circuit voltage (V).
Current temperature coefficient (A/Kelvin).
Bandgap energy of the PV cell (eV).
Number of series-connected cells.
Number of parallel-connected cells.

I. I NTRODUCTION

HE most important motivating factors toward the use

of renewable energy sources for power generation are
depletion of fossil fuel reservoirs, increased oil prices, and
global warming. Among the various renewable energy sources
available, photovoltaic (PV) or solar energy has several advantages as follows: it is omnipresent, ecofriendly, and absence
of rotating of parts added with various favorable government
policies. As a result, the total installed PV capacity in various
countries has increased from 0.3 to 35 GW during the period
19972010 [1]. Further, the evolution of smart grid concept
has accelerated the widespread use of PV systems, and solar
energy is expected to play a vital role in distributed generation
(DG) systems. However, there are several challenges for PV
power generation such as low power conversion efficiency and
increased installation cost. Further, the maximum output power
from a PV system largely varies under changing atmospheric
conditions [2]. The maximum power point (MPP) in a PV
power-generation system is a unique point in the powervoltage
(PV) curve at a given solar insolation and ambient temperature and it varies with environmental conditions. In order to
maximize the efficiency of PV power-generation systems, an
MPP tracking (MPPT) technique has been integrated with such
systems and is an essential component in PV systems now [2].
MPPT is a major challenge in the use of PV systems since the
currentvoltage (IV) and PV curves are nonlinear in nature.
To complicate further, this characteristic curves depend on solar
insolation and ambient temperature. As these parameters vary
continuously, tracking MPP is a major problem. However, when
the PV arrays in a PV power-generation system receive uniform
solar insolation, there exists a single MPP in the PV curve.

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TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF S INGLE PV M ODULE

Fig. 1. Single-diode model of PV cell.

MPPT is then performed using several traditional methods and

few of the prominent schemes are perturb and observe (P&O),
incremental conductance (INC), and hill climbing (HC) method
[3][10]. These methods vary in complexity, sensors required,
convergence speed, and cost of the system [2]. It is worth mentioning that the traditional MPPT schemes are effective and
time-tested under uniform solar insolation alone.
PV systems are usually composed of series-parallel arrangements of PV modules spanning large areas. Some of the PV
arrays are partially shaded due to neighboring buildings, trees,
poles, and moving clouds. Under partially shaded conditions
(PSCs), the PV curve becomes more complex as it is characterized by multiple power peaks. The MPP among the multiple
peaks is termed as global MPP (GMPP) and all other peaks
are called local MPPs (LMMPs) [11]. The traditional MPPT
schemes referred in the previous paragraph which are useful for
uniform insolation cannot be effectively used for MPPT under
PSCs since these methods cannot distinguish between LMPPs
and GMPP. Several MPPT schemes suitable for tracking
GMPP in PV systems under PSC have been recently reported
[11][19]. Among these, particle swarm optimization (PSO)based approach appears to be a promising one in terms of global
convergence capability and speed of convergence [16][19].
This paper proposes a novel MPPT scheme which suitably
integrates the salient features of ant-colony optimization (ACO)
and traditional P&O method. In the initial stages of scanning,
the foraging ants in the ACO method perform global search
and after a finite number of ant movements, the best solution achieved is used to start the P&O method. This cascaded
approach integrates the advantages of ACO algorithm with
that of P&O method leading to quick convergence to GMPP.
The development of the algorithm is explained followed by
simulated and measured results.

Fig. 2. (a) 5s and (b) 2s4p configurations.

Im = np IL np ID

In general, PV module consists of number of series- and

parallel-connected cells. Therefore, current generated by the
PV module is given as

(2)

where current through the diode is given by Shockley

equation as
 q(V +IRs )

ID = Io e AkT ns 1 .
(3)
The diode saturation current Io which is depend on temperature can be calculated from (4)

 3


qEg
Tn
1
1
IO = IOn
exp

(4)
T
Ak Tn
T
where IOn =

Iscn
.
exp (Vocn / aVtn ) 1

(5)

The photo current IL of PV cell is the current generated by

the incident light falling on the PV cell. This current varies linearly with the received solar insolation and is also a function of
temperature. It is obtained using (6)

II. PV S YSTEM M ODELING

The single-diode model of PV cell shown in Fig. 1 is used
for modeling and simulating the PV system. The model of PV
system is developed in MATLAB environment using the procedure given in [20]. The basic equations concerned with the
modeling of PV system are explained below. The specifications
of the PV module are given in Table I.
By applying Kirchoffs Current Law (KCL), to the circuit
in Fig. 1, the current I of the PV cell can be mathematically
expressed as
V + I Rs
.
(1)
I = IL ID
Rp

Vm + Im Rs_m
Rp_m

IL = (ILn + Ki T )

G
, where T = T Tn
Gn

(6)

For the demonstration of the proposed algorithm, two different PV configurations are considered in this work. The first
arrangement consists of 5-series-connected modules termed as
5 s and the second one has 2-series 4-parallel (2s4p) configuration which are shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b), respectively.
A. Uniform Insolation
1) Effect of Temperature: As stated earlier, the PV curve
of the PV system varies when there is a change in temperature and solar insolation. To demonstrate this, 5s configuration
as given in Fig. 2(a) is considered. It is assumed that the solar
insolation is constant at 1000 W/m2 and ambient temperature

SUNDARESWARAN et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED P&O ALGORITHM ASSISTED THROUGH COLONY OF FORAGING ANTS

Fig. 4. Partially
(b) Pattern 2.

Fig. 3. PV curve of 5s configuration for (a) temperature and

(b) insolation variations.

is varied so that cell temperature changes from 25 C to 45 C

and then to 55 C. Now, (1)(6) are used to compute PV curves
and are shown in Fig. 3(a). It can be seen from this figure
that as the temperature increases, the peak power of PV system decreases, thereby reducing the efficiency. The peak power
of PV system decreases by 0.5% for an increase of 1 C of
temperature [21]. The PV output power thus depends on the
operating temperature of the module. The dependency of PV
output power on temperature is because of the dependency of
VOC and ISC on the temperature.
2) Effect of Solar Insolation: Now, the temperature is
maintained constant at standard test condition (STC) of 25 C
and the insolation level is varied uniformly for all the modules in the 5s configuration. The PV curves computed using
(1)(6) shown in Fig. 3(b) clearly show that PV output power
reduces significantly when there is a decline in the insolation
level. When the environmental condition changes, both solar
insolation and ambient temperature do change. However, there
is a single power peak in the PV curve, and it is well articulated
in the literature [2][5] that P&O method is effectively used
to track MPP either solar insolation or ambient temperature or
both change.
B. PV Under PSC
For MPPT, a dcdc converter is interfaced between the PV
array and load [8], and the duty ratio d of this converter is
adjusted for tracking the MPP. Hence, in this section, variation in PV power against duty ratio d is analyzed under PSCs.
For the 5s configuration, two distinct insolation patterns are
imposed and the plots of the PV power against duty ratio (Pd

shaded

5-series

configuration.

189

(a)

Pattern

curve) are computed [22] and is given in Fig. 4(a) and (b).
These patterns are named as pattern 1 and pattern 2, respectively. In a similar manner, the 4s2p arrangement is exposed
to two different levels of solar insolation as given in Fig. 5, and
the corresponding power curves against duty ratio are computed
and are given in Fig. 5(a) and (b). These curves are indicated as
pattern 3 and pattern 4. It is evident from Figs. 4 and 5 that PV
systems under PSC exhibit multiple peaks. As is seen, pattern 1
has a GMPP of 45.46 W with four LMPPs; GMPP of pattern 2
is 30.46 W with four LMPPs. Similar observations can be seen
for patterns 3 and 4.
III. F ORMULATION OF THE P ROBLEM
The MPPT is formulated as an optimization problem as
follows:
Maximize Ppv (d)
Subject to dmin d dmax .

(7)
(8)

In the above, Ppv stands for PV output power, d is the duty

ratio of the boost converter, and dmin and dmax are the maximum and minimum values of the duty ratio taken as 10% and
90%, respectively, in this work.
IV. MPPT T HROUGH ACO M ETHOD
The ACO is first proposed by Dorigo [23], [24], and it has
been successfully employed for several applications in the past
[25][28]. The ant foraging is successful essentially due to the
pheromone-laying mechanism and subsequent ant movement.
In the proposed methodology, the position of an ant refers to
duty ratio of the dcdc converter, and the corresponding PV
output power is regarded as the pheromone content. The steps
of ACO-based MPPT is as follows.

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Fig. 6. MPPT curves for 5s configuration employing (a) ACO and

(b) P&O methods.

Step 4: In this step, the ant with the highest pheromone deposition remains at its position, and all other ants adjust
their position by the following equation:


= dki + 1 a .
dk+1
i
Subject to di min

Fig. 5. Partially shaded 2-series 4-parallel configuration. (a) Pattern 3.

(b) Pattern 4.

Step 1: This step demands ant population size and step size
of ant movement labeled as 1 . Ant population is
taken as six and 1 is exponentially decreased as the
iteration progresses. For the kth iteration, we have
1 (k) = o ek , where o is taken as 10.

(9)

Step 2: Position the colony of ants in the solution space. The

probable solution space falls between 10% and 90%
of the duty ratio. This solution space is now uniformly
divided and the six ants in the population are positioned at 10%, 26%, 42%, 58%, 74%, and 90% of
the duty ratio. It may be noted that this way of initialization of ant position guarantees convergence to
GMPP. This step is a major deviation from the traditional ACO method where the ants are randomly
deployed in the solution space.
Step 3: Corresponding to each ant position, the dcdc converter is activated and output power of PV system
is computed. The output power corresponding to the
position of each ant is considered as the pheromone
deposition at that location.

(10)
dk+1
i

di max

(11)

a is a unit
where 1 is step size of ant movement and
vector starting from ith ant to the ant having maximum pheromone content. When all the ants complete
their movement, one iteration is said to be completed.
Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all the ants converge to
MPP.
For the simulation study, a 5s PV configuration is considered
with two different nonuniform insolation conditions, which
are shown in Fig. 4. Dedicated programs were developed in
MATLAB environment for ACO-MPPT algorithm. The proposed ant-colony-based MPPT algorithm is now employed to
track the GMPP for both the patterns and the computed results
are shown in Fig. 6(a). The power curve shows increased fluctuations in the early stages of tracking evidently due to stochastic
ant exploration; however, the turbulations significantly reduce
as the search proceeds. At the end of 11.83 s, all ants converge
to the maximum available power of 45.46 W. When the Pd
curve changes to pattern 2, the colony of ants restarts the search
process and finally converges to the new GMPP of 30.46 W.
The transient response of tracking curve clearly illustrates that
ACO-based MPPT is a promising method in identifying the
peak PV output power irrespective of the shading pattern.
P&O method has been largely employed as successful
method for MPPT in PV systems [2][5]. Hence, this method is
now employed for power tracking and the computed results are
shown in Fig. 6(b). This figure shows that P&O-based tracking
is ineffective since it lands in local power peaks of 22.52 W for
pattern 1 and 22.14 W for pattern 2. Thus, this method fails to
identify GMPP and gets trapped in one of the local peaks.

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191

Fig. 9. Demonstration of proposed MPPT method for pattern 1.

Variation of (a) power and (b) dutyratio.
Fig. 7. MPPT curves for 4s2p configuration employing (a) ACO and
(b) P&O methods.

TABLE II
R ESULTS OF P&O-B ASED MPPT FOR 10 I NDEPENDENT T RIALS

TABLE III
P&O R ESULTS F OR PV S YSTEM PARAMETER VARIATION

Fig. 8. Illustration of ACO based MPPT scheme for pattern 1. Ant position (a) at start of search, (b) end of first iteration, and (c) end of second
iteration.

In order to further strengthen this argument, a different PV

configuration namely 2s4p as given in Fig. 5 is now considered. For two different shading arrangements, the computed

Pd curves are also included in this figure. The two patterns

denoted as pattern 3 and pattern 4 are now sequentially imposed
and tracking curves using ACO and P&O MPPT methods are
computed and are given in Fig. 7(a) and (b), respectively.
Here, ACO-based tracking always identifies GMPP, while P&O
method does so only for pattern 3. The tracking curves confirm
and further manifest that the ACO-MPPT guarantees convergence to MPP, whereas P&O-MPPT fails to guarantee the
same.

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Fig. 10. Sensitivity analysis of P&O method for change in stepsize. (a) Pattern 1. (b) Pattern 2. (c) Pattern 3. (d) Pattern 4.

The computed tracking curves in Figs. 6(a) and 7(a) clearly

suggest that the proposed ACO method is a promising procedure in capturing GMPP in a partially shaded PV system.
However, the major drawbacks are the sustained oscillations
in PV output power during tracking and increased convergence
time. The traditional P&O method, as is well illustrated in the
literature available, fails to recognize GMPP and hence settles
to local power peak resulting in reduced energy extraction from
the PV system. However, it may be noted that P&O-based tracking curve is a smoothly varying one causing no ripples in the
PV output power. Thus, this is a typical optimization problem

where one can think of combining ACO-based approach for

global search and change over to traditional P&O method for
local search. This can largely enhance the performance of
MPPT during PSCs.
V. D ESCRIPTION OF THE ACO-P&O A LGORITHM
The tracking of the MPP through ACO-assisted P&O algorithm can be best explained by considering pattern 1. The
tracking of the PV power through ACO in the early stages
and P&O in the later stages is illustrated through Figs. 8(a)(c)

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193

Fig. 11. Static convergence characteristics (a) Pattern 1 (b) Pattern 2.

TABLE IV
C ONVERGENCE C HARACTERISTIC C OMPARISON OF MPPT M ETHODS

Fig. 12. Mean and standard deviation plot for (a) pattern 1 and
(b) pattern 2.

and 9. Fig. 8(a) shows the initial deployment of ant population

a1 to a6 at discrete values of duty ratio. As can be seen, each
ant position is associated with PV output power and ant a4 represents the best ant since the PV output power corresponding
to its position is the highest at 40.68 W corresponding to duty
ratio of 58%. Now, all antsexcept a4adjust their position
as per step 4. The position of all ants at the end of the first iteration is given in Fig. 8(b). It is observed from this figure that
all ants except a4 update their position and a5 becomes the best
ant now. The maximum power identified through the colony of
the ants at the end of the first iteration is 43.64 W and the corresponding duty ratio is 64%. Fig. 8(c) gives the new positions
of ants at the end of second iteration with a4 appearing as the
best ant corresponding to 44.81 W and the respective duty ratio
is 61.68%. Fig. 8(a)(c) demonstrate simple foraging behavior
of ants moving toward the GMPP.

In order to implement the proposed strategy, a computer program in MATLAB is developed and the variations in PV output
power and duty ratio of the dcdc converter are computed and
are portrayed in Fig. 9. Referring to this figure, the maximum
power identified at the end of deployment of ants is 40.68 W
and the respective duty ratio is 58%. At the end of the first iteration, the PV output power and the duty ratio are updated to
43.64 W and 64%, respectively. At the end of the second iteration, the best ant position is 61.68% leading to 44.81 W. At the
end of the second iteration, the ACO algorithm is terminated
and P&O method is initiated with the position of the best ant as
the starting point. Fig. 9(a) illustrates the tracking through P&O
method. It can be seen that the ACO algorithm takes 1.95 s and
the P&O algorithm consumes 0.6 s leading to a total convergence time of 2.55 s to reach GMPP. The ant movement and the
subsequent tracking through P&O method clearly illustrate the
success of the new method.
VI. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
A. Convergence Characteristics of P&O Method
It is well articulated in the literature [11][19] that P&O
method fails to reach true power peak in a PV system under

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Fig. 13. MPPT curves for 5s configuration employing (a) ACO-P&O and
(b) PSO methods.

Fig. 14. MPPT curves for 4s2p configuration employing (a) ACO-P&O
and (b) PSO methods.

TABLE V
PARAMETERS OF PSO

Fig. 15. Experimental setup.

PSC and mostly settles to LMPP. However, it is necessary to

verify this claim, and hence, this section examines the feasibility of employing P&O method for MPPT in partially shaded
PV systems under the following conditions: 1) repeating run for
several times; and 2) senstitivity analysis of P&O method.
1) Repeating Run for Several Times: The powerduty
ratio (Pd) curves given in Fig. 4 are now considered and the
P&O algorithm is run repeatedly for 10 times independently.
For completeness and generality, the P&O method is initiated
from the left as well as the right extremes of the powerduty
ratio (Pd) curve, and the results of the 10 independent trackings are tabulated in Table II. The results presented in this
table show that in spite of the direction of search with multiple attempts, the traditional P&O method settles to the nearest
LMPP from the starting point. It is seen that repeated run of
P&O algorithm does not guarantee convergence to true optima;
further, P&O-based MPPT is an online tracking process and,
therefore, the method of repeat run cannot be adopted since it
leads to energy loss.
2) Sensitivity Analysis of P&O Method: The concept of
sensitivity analysis is taken from [29], and in the present case,

this analysis is carried out by changing the following parameters: 1) parameters of PV system; and 2) parameter of P&O
algorithm.
a) Effect of Variation in PV System Parameters: First,
the effect of PV parameter variation is considered and it is
established in the literature that under PSCs, the parameters
of the PV system do change [22] and hence we have considered four different PV patterns given in Figs. 4 and 5. The
P&O method available in the literature [3] is now employed
for MPPT and the results of investigation are listed in Table III.
The numerical values in the tabulation show that P&O method
rarely identifies GMPP and in most cases settles to one of the
LMPPs.
b) Change of Parameters of P&O Algorithm: The single parameter in the P&O method is step size [3], and it is the
little change in the duty ratio d of the dcdc converter. In the
present analysis, d is kept at three distinct values namely at
1%, 5%, and 10%, respectively, and the effect of d on the
P&O method on four different patterns of powerduty ratio
curves given in Figs. 4 and 5 is analyzed. The findings of the

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195

Fig. 16. Experimentally determined Pd curves for 5s configuration

(a) Pattern 5 and (b) Pattern 6. Scale: Power12 W/div, Time 1 s/div.

study are delineated in Fig. 10. The transient response curves

shown in Fig. 10 clearly illustrate that for patterns 1 and 2, in
spite of the variation in d, the P&O method miserably fails
in identifying GMPP. On the other hand, for patterns 3 and 4
where the GMPP is on either the left or the right of the Pd
curve, the P&O method is successful. Thus, this study shows
that the P&O method with variation in d cannot guarantee
convergence to true optima always. Further, the plots in Fig. 10
reveal that the higher the value of d, the perturbations in the
power output of the PV system are also higher. The sensitivity
analysis indicates that the P&O method is not a promising technique for identifying the maximum power from a PV system.
B. Comparison of Convergence Characteristics and CPU
Usage of MPPT Methods
1) Static Convergence Analysis: The static convergence
is defined as analysis of positions of maximum points of fitness
function under various conditions [30]. The static convergence
characteristics of the proposed algorithm in comparison with
the traditional P&O method and existing PSO method are now
obtained for patterns 1 and 2 and are given in Fig. 11. The plots
in this figure indicate enhanced performance of the proposed
algorithm over its existing rivals.
2) Dynamic Convergence Analysis: The dynamic convergence is defined as analysis of mean values () and standard
deviation () of fitness value of all individuals in the population
[31]. The mean value can display the accuracy of the algorithm,
and the standard deviation of fitness value of all individuals in
the population can measure the convergence speed of the algorithm. The dynamic convergence curves are now computed for
the proposed method together with P&O and PSO methods and
are portrayed in Fig. 12. The variations in standard deviations
and mean of the proposed algorithm are clearly shown to be
superior to the existing methods. The static and dynamic convergence curves also show that global convergence is always
guaranteed for the proposed method as well as PSO method,
whereas P&O does not have such a feature. The proposed

Fig. 17. Measured tracking curves using (a) ACO, (b) P&O, (c) ACOP&O, and (d) PSO methods. Scale: Power12 W/div, Time 2 s/div.

method identifies the GMPP quite faster with least turbulations

in comparison with PSO.
3) CPU Usage: The CPU usage [32] is envisaged as the
execution time and is listed in Table IV. Evidently, the proposed algorithm has least execution time. A brief comparison
of performance indexes of convergence is given in Table IV.
C. Simulation Results
The proposed ACO-P&O MPPT method as explained in
Section V is now employed for MPPT process in 5s configuration given in Fig. 4. The computed tracking curves are given

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TABLE VI
P ERFORMANCE C OMPARISON OF MPPT M ETHODS

Fig. 18. Eight different PV curves used for performance comparison.

TABLE VII
S EQUENCE OF S HADED PATTERNS

TABLE VIII
T RACKING P ERFORMANCE OF MPPT M ETHODS

in Fig. 13(a). It is seen from this figure that the ACO-P&O

algorithm takes 2.55 and 2.41 s to reach GMPP of 45.46 and
30.46 W, respectively, for patterns 1 and 2.
For comparison, the MPPT employing PSO algorithm [19]
is carried out and the results obtained are shown in Fig. 13(b).
It may also be noted that comparison of the proposed method
with PSO is more justified since both belong to populationbased optimization strategies. The PSO-based tracking curves
show that PSO algorithm takes more time to converge to highest power point, and sustained oscillations are present in the PV
output power for more duration. The PSO parameters are given
in Table V.
Patterns 3 and 4 shown in Fig. 5 are now sequentially
imposed and tracking curves using ACO-P&O-MPPT and
PSO-MPPT are computed and are given in Fig. 14(a) and (b),
respectively. As in the previous case, the PSO method shows
increased convergence time and oscillation in the PV output
power. On the other hand, the proposed hybrid method reaches

MPP quite faster. The power curves show oscillations in PV

output power during ant-colony-based search, but thereafter, the
tracking curve is smooth due to the P&O algorithm. The simulation results clearly confirm and further strengthen the effectiveness of the newly proposed algorithm. An attempt to integrate
PSO with PO was also done, but found to be less promising.
D. Experimental Results
The experimental setup used to validate the proposed MPPT
technique is shown in Fig. 15. The PV array consists of series-

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197

TABLE IX
C OMPUTATION OF I NCOME G ENERATED

and parallel-connected PV modules with specifications given in

Table I. Here, the PV system is connected to a boost-type dcdc
converter which feeds the load. The microcontroller employed
is PIC16F876A. The PIC16F876A is a 28-pin integrated circuit
(IC) and houses mainly 256 bytes of EEPROM data memory, 2
Comparators, 5 channels of 10-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, PWM generator, synchronous serial port, and universal
asynchronous receiver transmitter (USART). All of these features make it ideal for more advanced level A/D applications in
automotive, industrial, appliances, and consumer applications.
The microcontroller crystal oscillator frequency is 4 MHz. For
the online MPPT process, the PV voltage Vpv and PV current
Ipv are sensed and these signals are multiplied internally to
obtain PV ouput power Ppv . The PV voltage is sensed using
a potential divider and the PV current through LEM LA 55-P
Hall effect current transducer. These signals are acquired at the
sampling interval of 100 ms by the 10-bit data acquisition system. In the proposed work, the algorithms corresponding to
P&O, PSO, ACO, and the combined methods are developed
in microprocessor programming laboratory (MPLAB) and then
downloaded to the PIC 16F876A microcontroller for online
MPPT process. The input to this optimization algorithm is the
PV power, and during the run of each algorithm, pulse-widthmodulated (PWM) gating signal is generated using the PWM
generator and fed to dcdc converter. As the iterations of each
algorithm proceed, the duty ratio of the PWM signal gets modified leading to maximum power output from the PV system.
To prove the results of simulation study, experiments were
carried out on a 5s PV configuration for two different PSCs.
It is important to mention that during experimentation, opaque
sheets of different thickness were placed on different PV modules to generate suitable Pd curves and hence, Pd curves
generated for simulation could not be reproduced as in the
experimentation study. The experiments were carried out on
May 31, 2015 at Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India, at 2.00
P. M . when recorded temperature and insolation were 30 C
and 750 W/m2 , respectively. Two different Pd curves thus
obtained for experimental work are given in Fig. 16 and are
labeled as patterns 5 and 6. Pattern 5 has a highest power
peak of 32.4 W with three LMPPs, whereas pattern 6 possesses

14.4 W as highest power peak with one LMPP. The shadings on

the PV modules were adjusted such that patterns 5 and 6 exist
for 20-s duration.
The experimental results are given in Fig. 17. Here, Fig. 17(a)
shows the power tracking using ACO. Inspecting the results,
it is seen that the convergence time for patterns 5 and 6 is
8.77 and 8.25 s, respectively. The experiment was repeated for
P&O-based MPPT for patterns 5 and 6 and the recorded curves
are given in Fig. 17(b). It is seen that P&O gets trapped with
LMPP of pattern 5 while it converges to GMPP for pattern
6. The experimental results convincingly verify the simulation
findings. The ripples in the PV output power during tracking is visible for ACO-based method which is absent for the
P&O-based scheme.
For the same patterns, experiments were carried out employing both ACO-P&O and PSO MPPT methods and the measured
tracking curves are depicted in Fig. 17(c) and (d), respectively.
It can be readily seen that ACO-P&O method improves the
tracking performance substantially in terms of convergence
time, capability to reach maximum PV output power, and
reduced duration of PV power oscillations. The PSO-based
tracking is effective, but takes longer time for convergence
with sustained oscillations in PV output power. The computed
results and the experimental waveforms convincingly show
that the proposed algorithm is a strong candidate for MPPT in
PV systems under PSC with substantially improved tracking
performance.
VII. P ERFORMANCE E VALUATION OF THE
P ROPOSED A LGORITHM
The findings of simulation studies and experimentation of
various MPPT techniques discussed in this paper are tabulated
in Table VI. The numerical value in this table illustrates superior performance of the new method. There are three important
indexes defined in the literature [33] to evaluate the MPPT techniques. These are as follows: 1) convergence time 1; 2) tracking
efficiency; and 3) capacity utilization factor.
Among these, convergence time is more important because it
decides the quantum of energy extracted from the PV system.

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MPPT methods is calculated and given in Table IX. Fig. 19(a)

shows the convergence time taken by each algorithm to reach
the maximum available power. This figure again validates the
effectiveness of the proposed algorithm which has least convergence time. Fig. 19(b) depicts the capacity utilization factor of
PV plant employing the MPPT methods. It is shown that the
use of the proposed hybrid algorithm enhances the capacityutilization factor of the PV power plant. Fig. 19(c) gives the
comparison of total income generated by the power plant, considering Rs. 15 per unit of electricity. As is seen, the ACO-P&O
algorithm generates more income by extracting higher energy
from the PV arrays. Thus, from Fig. 19, it can be concluded that
the proposed algorithm enhances the performance of PV plant.
VIII. C ONCLUSION
This paper has described a new MPPT method in PV systems under PSCs. The proposed method effectively integrates
ant-colony-based global search in the formative stages of tracking together with traditional P&O method in the later stages
for local search. The combined method effectively tracks the
GMPP with minimum tracking time and hence enables more
energy to be extracted from the PV system. The proposed
method is shown to possess enhanced static and dynamic convergence characteristics and lower CPU usage accompanied
with smoother and faster tracking characteristics. Computed
and measured results are also presented to demonstrate the
superiority of the new method. In addition, the proposed
method can be easily incorporated into any existing MPPT
scheme without additional hardware.
R EFERENCES

Fig. 19. Performance comparison of MPPT methods. (a) Convergence

time. (b) Capacity utilization factor. (c) Revenue generation.

In other words, lesser the convergence time to reach GMPP, the

higher is the energy extracted. This has been illustrated with a
typical case study and is illustrated below.
In order to prove the benefit of reduced convergence time,
a case study was performed on grid-connected 1-MW solar
power plant at Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, India, which was
commissioned on July 25, 2011. This PV plant is assumed to
be exposed to eight different PSCs resulting in eight different
PV curves, which are shown in Fig. 18. These patterns are
numbered from 7 to 14. Considering the sunshine for 8 h, each
PV curve is assumed to exist for 10 min in a random manner
as given in Table VII. Now, ACO-P&O, ACO, PSO, and P&O
methods are employed for MPPT for each pattern. The convergence time and power tracked by each algorithm are given in
Table VIII. The annual energy generated when using the four

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Kinattingal Sundareswaran was born in

Pallassana, Kerala, India, in 1966. He received
the B.Tech. (Hons.) degree in electrical and
electronics engineering, and the M.Tech.
(Hons.) degree in power electronics from the
University of Calicut, Calicut, Kerala, in 1988
and 1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering from Bharathidasan
University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India, in
2001.
From 2005 to 2006, he was a Professor
with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Calicut, Kerala. He is currently a Professor with the
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, National Institute
of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. His research interests
include power electronics, renewable energy systems, and biologically
inspired optimization techniques.

Vethanayagam Vigneshkumar received the

B.E. degree in electrical and electronics engineering, and the M.E. degree in power systems
from Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,
India, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Currently,
he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical
and electronics engineering from the National
Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil
Nadu, India.
His research interests include power systems
and renewable energy systems.

Peddapati Sankar received the B.Tech. degree

in electrical and electronics engineering from
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India, and the M.Tech.
degree in power electronics and power systems
from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur,
Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2006 and 2009,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
and electronics engineering from the National
Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil
Nadu, India, in 2015.
Currently, he is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women, Bhimavaram,
India. His research interests include power electronics and renewable
energy systems.

Sishaj P. Simon was born in India. He

received the B.Eng. degree in electrical and
electronics engineering, and the M.Eng.
degree in applied electronics from Bharathiar
University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, in
1999 and 2001, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in power system engineering from the
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee,
Uttarakhand, India, in 2006.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with
the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT) (formerly Regional
Engineering College), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, His research interests
include the area of power system operation and control, power system
planning and reliability, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic system,
and application of meta-heuristics and intelligent techniques to power
system.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 12, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2016

P. Srinivasa was born in Perikapadu, Guntur,

Andhra Pradesh, India, in 1979. He received
the B.Tech. degree in electrical and electronics
engineering from Bapatla Engineering College
(BEC), Bapatla, Guntur, in 2001; the M.Tech.
degree in energy systems from Jawaharlal
Nehru
Technological
University
(JNTU),
Hyderabad, Telangana, India, in 2006; and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli,
Tamil Nadu, India, in 2014.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with the Department of
Electrical and Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology.
His research interests include power electronic and drives, and biologically inspired optimization techniques.

Sankaran Palani received the B.E. degree in

electrical engineering from the University of
Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, in 1966;
the M.Tech. degree in control systems engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, in 1968; and
the Ph.D. degree in control systems engineering
from the University of Madras, in 1982.
Since 1968, he has been a Faculty Member
with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, and became a Professor and Head of
the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering in 1996.
Currently, he is the Director of Sudharsan Engineering College,
Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. His research interests include design of intelligent controllers for dynamic systems, power electronics, and power
system control.