A new irradiance sensorless hybrid MPPT technique for photovoltaic power plants

A hybrid Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) method without using an irradiance sensor is proposed in this paper. The hybrid MPPT method is a combination of conventional Perturb and Observe (P&O) and Fractional Short Circuit Current (FSCC) MPPT technique. The proposed hybrid MPPT decides intelligently about the initial operating point of P&O by using the FSCC MPPT method. This method requires no sensor for irradiation measurement because it detects intelligently about the change in irradiance. Therefore, under dynamic weather conditions the decision about measuring the initial operating point of P&O is intelligent. After finding the initial operating point the system shifts to the conventional P&O method and starts to perturb with a small perturbation size. The use of small perturbation steps enables the system to work with less power oscillations around the Maximum Power Point (MPP), while the use of FSCC helps in rapid tracking of MPP especially under the varying environmental conditions. Thus, the proposed method is fast in tracking the MPP with less power oscillations and hence better performance in terms of energy harvesting when compared with the conventional P&O technique. Impedance matching between solar panel and load is achieved using a DC-DC boost converter and the proposed method is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The system is simulated against the steady and dynamic weather conditions. The results shows that under steady weather condition the proposed method harvests 5% extra energy as compared with the conventional P&O. For dynamic weather conditions the proposed method harness an additional 3.5% energy when compared with the P&O method, which makes it very promising.