Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4
Modelling and Comparison of Different MPPT
Algorithms for a Standalone PV System
Aman Sharma
Electrical Engineering Department Electrical Engineering Department
Delhi Technological University Delhi Technological University
Delhi, India
aman_mt2k18@dtu.ac.in shivam_mt2k18@dtu.ac.in
Abstract: This paper is going to analyze the comparative study
of widely used MPPT Techniques in the majority of industries
namely: Perturbate and Observe(P&O), Incremental
Conductance(IncCond) and Fuzzy Logic Algorithms. All three
control algorithms are studied in MATLAB/S imulink under
different irradiance conditions and their tracking efficiency are
analyzed accordingly. For the backup system i.e. for charging
of battery a charge controller is employed that will provide a
reference current for charging depending upon the present
status of battery voltage and S tatus of Charge(SOC). Finally,
comparati ve results were drawn and algorithms were
compared based on several factors like Dynamic Response,
Ease of Implementation, Efficiency etc.
Keywords – P&O, IncCond, SOC, MPPT.
I. INT RODUCT ION
Climat ic change has huge impacts on our environment due to
which some areas tend to be damper in winter and drearier in
summer. Storms, droughts and floods are happening more
frequently. Melting of glaciers can also be noticed in the
arctic regions. Our primary source for energy generation is
mainly dependent on the fossil fuels that are responsible for
the emission of harmful greenhouse gases likely (CO2 , CH4 ,
N2 O). Renewable energy is one of the present solutions to
climat ic change issues which provides energy for our regular
necessities such as heating, cooling and transportation with
almost zero-carbon emissions. Renewable energies such as
solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy hydropower
and biomass offer a green sustainable environment.
6.78% 1.45% 0.43% 0.57% 0.89%
4.43%
32.89%
23.04%
29.16%
Petroleum Coal Natural Gas
Nuclear Hydroelectric Wind
Solar Biofuel Other
Fig. 1. World Energy Fuel Consumption
80% of g lobal energy comes from fossil fuel energy sources
as in Fig. 1. Countries like India, China, U.S.A., Spain and
Germany are one of the main investors in renewable
energies. Renewable energy also contributes towards the
economy of a country by creating job opportunities
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Shivam Gupta Prof. Narendra Kumar
Electrical Engineering Department
Delhi Technological University
Delhi, India Delhi, India
narendrakumar@dce.edu
II. PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT AND SOLAR CELL
MODEL
The photovoltaic effect involves the creation of a terminal
potential d ifference across the junctions of two materials
having different properties whenever radiation of suitable
frequency strikes the surface. The p rocess of photovoltaic
effect can be summarized as:
1. A junction is formed(due to charge carriers) when the
photons of sufficient energy are absorbed by the materials.
2. These charge carriers are separated across the junction.
3. Finally, the charge carriers are collected at the terminals
which give rise to a potential difference.
A solar cell is generally represented by an electrical
equivalent one-diode model, shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Equivalent Circuit of Solar Cell
This circuit can be employed as an individual Solar cell. Fig.
2 shows a current source (Iph), a d iode (D) and series
resistance( Rs) which is the resistance inside each cell. The
net current is the difference between the Photogenerated
current (Iph) and the diode current (Id) given by
(1)
( )
[ ⁄ ] ( )⁄
By neglecting the two resistances, the net current equation
can be modified as
( )
[ ⁄ ]
(2)
III. NECESSITY OF MPPT TECHNIQUES
MPPT algorith ms are essential in PV system applications
because the maximu m power point of a solar panel varies
continuously with the irrad iation and temperature. So, to
maximize the energy produced from the PV system the
operating point of the system is changed by using MPPT
algorith ms. These MPPT techniques try to maintain the PV
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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

array’s operating point at its MPP (Maximu m Power Po int)
as in [1].
MPPT is generally an electron ic tracking usually a d igital
controller that is used to control the converter. The
controller emp loys a high-frequency DC/DC converter, that
takes the input from the PV system and converts it back
down to a different DC voltage current to exactly match the
panels to the batteries/load
IV. SYSTEM DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
A. SOLAR PV SYSTEM
The system used for the comparative study comprises of 3
parallel and 4 series-connected PV Modules giving a total
capacity of around 2.55 KW.
So for calculating the maximu m power of the PV array, the
series modules will add up to give the maximu m voltage and
parallel modules will add up to give the maximu m current.
(3)
where it is required to have extended charging periods to
reach full charge.
Here the charge controller was imp lemented using a discrete
PI the controller that will provide a reference charging
current depending upon the present voltage status of the
battery as in [3] and only charging the batteries up to 80% of
SOC with a constant voltage of 25.98V that is the nominal
battery voltage when it's 80% charged. The controller will
maintain this constant voltage until the battery is 80%
charged and will also provide the reference current for
charging the battery depending upon its present voltage
status to avoid large initial current gushing the battery.

(4)

(5)

The variation of PV and IV Curves under the different Fig. 4. PI Controller for Battery Charging
Irradiance conditions are as follow:
Photovoltaic System is subjected to varying Irradiance as
shown following:

Fig. 3. Pv And Iv Curves Under Different Irradiance

Fig. 5. Irradiance Curve
B. BATTERY CHARGE CONTROLLER DESIGN
The charging process of a battery is nonlinear so therefore The efficiency of the Tracking algorithms will be analyzed
different methods have to be employed to efficiently control under 4 different regions of Irrad iance curve at a fixed
the battery charging parameters as in [2]. So me of the control temperature of 25°C.
methods generally used in battery charging are as follow:
a) Constant Current (CC) Method Region 1: Region of Constant Irradiance.
Region 2: Region of Gradual Decrement in Irradiance.
In this method charging of the battery is done using a fixed Region 3: Region of Sudden Change in Irradiance.
amount of current. This method restricts the current to avoid
Region 4: Region of Gradual Increment in Irradiance.
over-current during the initial charging process. The value of
voltage depends on the charging current due to which the
calculation of the charging time and the SOC is simplified. V. RESULT ANALYSIS OF MPPT ALGORITHMS
b) Constant Voltage (CV) Method
A. P&O Technique
In this method charging of the battery is done by applying a
Fig. 6 analyze the value of voltages of the converters and PV
fixed amount of voltage across the terminals of the battery.
system under different Regions. During the region 2, there is
In the early phase of charging, the starting current is high. As
a slight decrease in the voltage level of the converters due to
the voltage builds up and reaches the floating-point limit
gradual decrease in the irradiance level and during the region
(Voltage-set-Point), the charging current decreases
3, there is a sharp decrease in the voltage levels due to abrupt
considerably. This type of charging control is employed
change in irradiance. Further in reg ion 4 the voltage level

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

gradually rises and become constant due to gradual
increment in irradiance level in [4].
of sunlight is sufficient enough to produce an admissible
output voltage from the solar PV system then the charging of
battery takes place. Now the action of controller co mes into
play, depending upon the present voltage status of the battery
the controller will provide a reference charging current so
that actual charging current would follow the same. Here the
battery are being charged only up to 80% of SOC by
maintaining a constant voltage of 25.98V (Which is the open
circuit voltage of Battery @ 80% SOC).

Fig. 6. Voltages of Converter and PV system under different regions of

Irradiance curve

Fig. 7 shows the plot of an output current of the PV system

and Avg. the output current of Boost converter under
different regions of Irradiance variations. As the plot was
analyzed for the output current of the PV array found that
currently varies according to the shape of Irradiance thus
tracking the maximu m power at every point. However, there
are oscillations during this tracking process which is the
major disadvantage of P&O technique discussed in [5]. Fig. 9. Battery System 1 Charging current and %SOC

b) Battery System 2
Assuming that Battery system 2 is init ially having 60% of
SOC before charging takes place.

Fig. 7. Boost Converter output current and PV Output Current under

different regions of Irradiance curve

Efficiency of the tacking process under different regions is

shown below.

Fig. 10. Battery System 2 Charging current and %SOC

B. IncCond Technique

Fig. 8. T racking Effciency under different regions

Fig. 8 concludes that efficiency of this tracking algorithm is Fig. 11. Voltages of Converter and PV system under different regions of
quite significant but it has a drawback of oscillating system Irradiance curve
operating point around the MPP.

a) Battery System 1
Assuming the Battery system 1 is initially having 40% of
SOC before charging takes place. When the irradiance level

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
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Fig. 11 analyze the value of voltages of the converters and
PV system under different Regions.
At the initial stage of region 1, the tacking algorithm does
not respond which is the main drawback of Incremental
Conductance tracking algorithm as compared to P&O
Algorithm. However, the oscillations are reduced
significantly in region 2 and region 3 as compared to P&O
algorithm in [6].
the irradiance changes abruptly the charging current gets
slightly deviated from the reference current. The slight
variations in the battery voltage can also be examined when
the charging current gets deviated from the reference current
and because of this reason SOC curve is not linear as
compared to P&O technique in [8].

Oscillat ions in the output current of PV array is significantly

reduced in region 2 and region 3 as compared to P&O
algorithm. Also, the tracking of MPP does not work during
the initial stages of Irradiance curve due to which the Avg.
the output current of the converter peaks up to 12 Amps and
this is due to slow response time of the INC tracking
algorithm discussed in [7].

Fig. 14. Battery System 1 Charging current and %SOC

b) Battery System 2
The plot for SOC and the charging current for Battery 2 is
shown in Fig. 15. In this case, the variations in charging
current are only in the region 1 due to slow response action
of the algorithm but the controller action will br ing it down
to the desired value of 25.98V.

Fig. 12. Boost Converter output current and PV Output Current under
different regions of Irradiance curve

Fig. 13 shows the efficiency of this tracking algorithm under

different regions of Irradiance curve along with the closeness
of output power of solar PV system with the ideal power and
can analyze that during the region 1 and region 4 the
efficiency is not quite deterministic due to the oscillations in
the output power of PV system and also due to the slow
response action of the tracking algorithm. However, in
Fig. 15. Battery System 2 Charging current and %SOC
region 2 and region 3 output power significantly tracks the
Ideal power without any oscillations and the corresponding
C. FUZZY Technique
efficiencies are also high in these regions.
The problem of oscillation around the MPP and slow
response action in the above two tracking algorithm can be
overcome by the use of the fuzzy logic approach for tracking
purposes as in [9] and [10]. It requires the use of fuzzy
membership functions to find the best optimal control output
which is tracking the MPP. The fu zzy controller used has
two inputs Error and Change in Error and produces one
output. The output of the controller is the change in the duty
ratio of the converter ΔD in res ponse to applied input [11].
The membership functions as in [12] used for the inputs and
output are:

Fig. 13. T racking Efficiency under different regions

a) Battery System 1
Fig. 14 shows the plot for the charging current and SOC. It
concludes that during region 1, due to the slow response
action of the algorithm the charging current of the battery
does to tracks the reference current. Also during the 3 where Fig. 16. Input 1 Membership Function

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Fig. 21 shows the efficiency of this tracking algorithm under

Fig. 17. Input 2 Membership Function
different regions of Irradiance curve along with the closeness
of the output power of the solar PV system with the ideal
power. The tracking efficiency is slightly reduced as
compared to the above two tracking algorith ms. Ho wever,
almost negligible oscillations in the tracking of MPP at the
cost of reduced efficiency is acceptable. The output power of
the PV system shows no oscillations except in region 4
where irradiance is increased.

Fig. 18. Output Membership Function

Fig. 19 analy ze the voltage level of the converters and PV

system which shows the best results as compared to the
previous two tracking algorithms with negligible oscillations
in the output voltage of the PV system. On ly small
oscillations pertain in region 4 when there is a sudden
increment in the irradiance due to which the slight
oscillations can be found in the output voltage of the
converter. Also, the response action of this algorithm is faster
as compared to Incremental Conductance algorithm but
slightly slower relative to the P&O algorithm [13].
Fig. 21. T racking Efficiency under different regions
a) Battery System 1
Fig. 22 shows the plot for the charging current and SOC.
Fro m the plot during region 1 due to the slow response action
of the algorithm, the charging current of the battery does not
tracks reference current. However, the response action faster
than INC algorith m also during the 3 where the irradiance
changes abruptly the charging current gets slightly deviated
fro m the reference current. The slight variations in the
battery voltage can also be examined when the charging
current gets deviated from the reference current and because
of this reason SOC curve is not linear as compared to P&O
technique.

Fig. 19. Voltages of Converter and PV system under different regions of

Irradiance curve

Fig. 20 shows the plot for the output current for the PV
system under different regions of Irradiance curve and can
analyze that oscillations are min imu m as co mpared to other
tracking algorithms. Only region 4 shows some oscillations
where the irradiance is increased suddenly.

Fig. 22. Battery System 1 Charging current and %SOC

b) Battery System 2
Here the variations in charging current are only in the region
1 due to slow response action of the algorithm but the
controller action will bring it down to the desired value of
25.98.

Fig. 20. Boost Converter output current and PV Output Current under
different regions of Irradiance curve

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Fig. 25. Efficiencies of different tracking algorithms under different regions

of Irradiance curve

C. IMPLEMENTATION
Fig. 23. Battery System 2 Charging current and %SOC Several important factors influencing the overall economy
described in Table II.
VI. OBSERVATIONS AND DISCUSSION
A. DYNAMIC RESPONSE T ABLE II. Important Implementation Factors

Fig. 24 shows that operating point of the system tracks the Regions Tracking Algorithm
MPP efficiently using fuzzy logic algorith m with almost P&O IncCond Fuzzy
negligible oscillations. Region 1 99.6% - 98.5%
Region 2 99.7% 99.5% 98.5%
Region 3 99.2 99.4 99.1%
Region 4 99.5 - 99.0%

D. BATTERY SYSTEM CHARGING SOC

Battery system 1 and Battery system 2 is initially having
40% and 60% of SOC respectively have been assumed
before charging take place. The rate of ris ing SOC of two
Batteries for different tracking algorith ms under different
regions of irradiance curve is shown in Fig. 26 as in [14].
Fig. 24. Closeness of Output Power of PV system with ideal power for
different tracking algorithms

P&O and IncCond algorith m also follows the maximu m

power but suffers from oscillations.

B. EFFICIENCY
The efficiencies of the MPPT algorith ms were studied
qualitative based on simulat ions by evaluating the steady
state response of the described system. The efficiency can
be calculated by using:
∑ ∑ (5)

T ABLE I. Efficiencies under different regions

MPPT Parameters
METHO DS Type Complexity Convergence Prior
Speed Training
Fuzzy Logic AI High Fast Yes Fig. 26. Rate of rise of SOC of Battery System 1 and Battery System 2 for
different tracking algorithms under different regions of Irradiance curve
P&O Online Low Low No
IncCond Online Medium Depends No CONCLUSION
In this paper, different MPPT methods are studied and
analyzed as in [15]. Their d isadvantages and advantages
were studied and compared based on simulations in the
Matlab/Simu link environment in terms of the dynamic
behavior of the system, efficiency, and ease of
implementation considerations . The results indicate that
implementation takes into consideration both the efficiency
and the dynamic behavior of the system. Also analyzed the
battery charging status (SOC) involving the tracking
algorithm in both of the battery systems.

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