Comparison of Control Strategies for Monitoring the Maximum Power Point Tracking of a Photovoltaic Plant

The solar resource is an unlimited source to generate energy, however, specific features such as irradiance and temperature, as well as the panel construction affect the system performance, thus, also changing the maximum power deliverable for the photovoltaic system. In this sense, a controller designed for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is required to seek the operation voltage (Vmpp) and current (Impp), therefore, increasing the system efficiency. In this paper traditional MPPT control techniques, Perturb and observes (P&O) and incremental conductance (INC), are compared to advanced control techniques Fuzzy Logic Controller (FCL) and Finite Control Set - Model Predict Control (FCS-MPC). The simulations, implemented in Matlab/Simulink, take the two-step ahead FCS MPC as the best controller for a photovoltaic system.