Hybrid Algorithms to Track Peak Power in Solar PV Array Under All Irradiation Conditions

The nonlinear relationship between the voltage and power of the PV array and the reliance of the electrical characteristics on the environmental conditions makes it essential to operate the PV array at its optimal operating point. The voltage-power characteristic exhibits single peak under homogeneous irradiation conditions and multiple peaks under heterogeneous irradiation conditions. This chapter presents and compares two hybrid MPPT algorithms that can track the optimal power point under all irradiation conditions. Both the algorithms are based on divide and discard strategy, and hence, the convergence speed is relatively better than the conventional hill climbing algorithms. The reliability of the algorithms are tested for various homogeneous and heterogeneous irradiation conditions on a 3 × 3 array. The simulated results and the comparison between the two algorithms in terms of reduction ratio are presented.