Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Improved double integral sliding mode MPPT controller based parameter

estimation for a stand-alone photovoltaic system
Nasrin Chatrenour, Hadi Razmi ⇑, Hasan Doagou-Mojarrad
Department of Electrical Engineering, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, an Improved Double Integral Sliding Mode MPPT Controller (IDISMC) for a stand-alone pho-
Received 17 December 2016 tovoltaic (PV) system is proposed. Performance of a sliding mode controller (SMC) is greatly influenced by
Received in revised form 30 January 2017 the choice of the sliding surface. Switching surface coefficients were selected by the use of Hurwitz sta-
Accepted 19 February 2017
bility theorem. The IDISMC not only is robust against parametric and non-parametric uncertainties, but
also has a very small steady-state error, thanks to the use of double integral of tracking voltage error in
the definition of its sliding surface. For realistic simulation, Genetic Algorithm (GA) method was used to
Keywords:
estimate parameters of solar panels model. The validity of the proposed double integral SMC in maximum
Improved Double Integral Sliding Mode
Controller (IDISMC)
power point tracking was approved by comparing the simulation results obtained for a sample PV system
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) with the results of other methods.
Photovoltaic (PV) system Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Genetic Algorithm (GA)

1. Introduction in PV systems because of their lesser complexity and inexpensive

The global warming, air quality and the increasing fuel costs
worldwide call for the need to operate Renewable Energy
Resources (RESs) [1,2]. The photovoltaic (PV) generation system
is one of the most important RES in modern power systems, due
to their desirable features such as pollution-free, free and infinite
availability, and it requires less maintenance [3]. But, their applica-
tions are usually limited by high cost, siting and sizing restrictions,
and the power of PV array varies with solar irradiance and ambient
temperature [4]. The variation in parameters of the PV cell for
changing the irradiance levels and temperature conditions results
in changing electrically characteristics. In this paper, a Genetic
Algorithm (GA)-based optimization method is used to find the
parameters of stand-alone PV system.
Therefore, the necessity of track the maximum power point
during changes in the weather conditions for increasing the effi-
ciency is inevitable [5,6].
So, the main goal of this paper is to develop the optimal opera-
tion of the PV array based on Maximum Power Point Tracking
(MPPT) technique.
In the literature, there are different MPPT techniques such as
offline, online and hybrid techniques.
Offline MPPT techniques such as Open Circuit Voltage (OCV)
method and Short Circuit Current (SCC) method are also employed
implementation. The major drawback of these techniques is that
they usually fail under rapidly changing irradiance and do not per-
form well under partial shading [7].
Several papers have been focused on online MPPT techniques
include the Constant Voltage (CV), Incremental Conductance (IC)
and the Perturb and Observe (P&O) techniques. The main disad-
vantage of these methods is that they oscillate around the maxi-
mum power point [8].
Many adaptive and hybrid techniques have been developed to
enhance the aforementioned techniques. A comprehensive review
of these MPPT techniques are given in [9]. Also, the application of
soft computing methods for MPPT of PV system have been
reviewed and analyzed in [10].
MPPT control for PV system is a typical nonlinear control prob-
lem. Therefore, many MPPT based sliding mode controller (SMC)
have been proposed in the literature; in both stand-alone and
grid-connected PV systems.
The salient features of the SMC method are as follows [11]:
– It is robust with respect to internal and external disturbances,
as well as parameter uncertainties.
– The SMC utilizes a high frequency switching control signal to
enforce the system trajectories onto a surface, namely sliding
surface or sliding manifold.

⇑ Corresponding author. In [12], authors are focused on control of a stand-alone PV sys-

E-mail addresses: nasrinsafari31@yahoo.com (N. Chatrenour), razmi.hadi@ tem with battery storage using MPPT-SMC. A DC/DC boost con-
gmail.com (H. Razmi), hasan_doagou@yahoo.com (H. Doagou-Mojarrad). verter operating in continuous conduction mode, beyond varying

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.02.055
0196-8904/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
98 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

Nomenclature

Abbreviations vD diode voltage

SMC Sliding Mode Controller a ideality factor of the diode
DISMC Double Integral Sliding Mode Controller Vt thermal voltage of the diode
IDISMC Improved Double Integral Sliding Mode Controller Ns number of series cells
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking kb Boltzmann’s constant
PV Photovoltaic e absolute value of electron’s charge
GA Genetic Algorithm T temperature of solar panel
RES Renewable Energy Resource Ipv ;ref photo-generated current at standard conditions
OCV Open Circuit Voltage KI short-circuit coefficient of temperature at standard con-
SCC Short Circuit Current ditions
CV Constant Voltage G solar radiation
IC Incremental Conductance I0;ref dark-saturation current at standard conditions
P&O Perturb and Observe Eg band gap energy of the silicon based on electron volts
PWM Pulse width Modulation vo load voltage
r pv dynamic resistance of solar panel
List of symbols K oc substance coefficient
I pv photo-generated current KG substance coefficient
iD diode current n sliding surface order
ish leakage current p bit string of one of the parameters Ipv ;ref , I0;ref , Rse , Rsh
v pv PV output voltage and a
ipv PV output current pmin minimum value of the parameter p
Rse series equivalent resistor of solar panel pmax maximum value of the parameter p
Rsh parallel equivalent resistor of solar panel d decimal value of the bit string
I0 dark-saturation current l length of the bit string

meteorological conditions has been considered. In [13], an efficient
MPPT controller based on hybrid backstepping and sliding mode is
used. Similarity to [13], a SMC based on the admittance of the PV
system was proposed in [14]. In the paper, a reference will be
selected by an external MPPT algorithm to mitigate the perturba-
tions generated by the load. In [15], effect of the SMC on a system
connected to a PV panel consisting of two cascaded dc-dc boost
converters has been investigated. An adaptive SMC, in which the
output voltage is not required to be known, were shown in [16].
Then, in proposed model, an adaptive H1 control algorithm was
proposed to ensure the fast and robust tracking. In [17], a frame-
work for optimal operation of a small scale PV system connected
to a micro-grid has been presented and a hybrid modified sliding
mode has been proposed, which uses fuzzy logic control as a useful
technique. In [18], a new design of stable SMC to maximize power
extraction from the PV system was proposed. To improve the
response speed of the PV system, a dual surface SMC was presented
for MPPT in [19]. In [11], a new algorithm combining sliding mode
variable structure control strategy and P&O method was addressed
for fast track the global maximum power point of PV system. In
[20], a new MPPT was proposed for a stand-alone PV system using
the concept of double integral sliding mode controller (DISMC).
The DISMC uses double integral of tracking voltage error term in
its sliding surface to eliminate steady-state error apart from pro-
viding robust control actions in face of system uncertainties.
However, in the most of existing literatures and research efforts
on the higher order SMC, for example in [20], the coefficients of the
defined sliding manifolds are taken as special values and given
directly in the simulations.
Furthermore, this paper proposes MPPT controller based
improved double integral sliding mode via selection of switching
surface coefficients by using Hurwitz stability. In the paper, in addi-
tion to using the tracking voltage error term, its first and double
integral, we consider the tracking current error term in the sliding
surface for calculating of equivalent switching signal. The stability
of subsystem is derived by using Lyapunov theory. In the sliding
mode, the sliding motion lies on the four coefficients, but, in a com-
plex and highly nonlinear form. Therefore, it is difficult to directly
choose the coefficients to obtain the desired sliding motion. To sim-
plify the switching surface design, the nonlinear sliding manifold is
linearized around the desired equilibrium points, the nonlinear
coefficients are calculated by Hurwitz stability.
The main contributions of the paper are (i) Determine the
parameters of PV system based on GA optimization method, (ii)
Design of an improved double integral sliding mode controller
(IDISMC) by choosing a surface coefficients by using Hurwitz sta-
bility and (iii) Consider the tracking current error term in the slid-
ing surface for calculating of equivalent switching signal.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the mod-
eling of solar panels. Section 3 contains the double integral sliding
mode MPPT controller for PV system. Section 4 determines the
switching surface coefficients. In Section 5, simulation results are
presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.
2. Mathematical modeling of solar panels
The simple electrical model of a solar system subjected to solar
radiation and connected to a load is in the form shown in Fig. 1
[21]. This circuit combines a current source, a diode, a resistor in
series and a resistor in parallel. A single diode equivalent circuit
of the PV cell is applied to the model, considering its simple imple-
mentation, proper accuracy and low computational efforts needed
[22].
Resistors in equivalent circuit represent the losses in cells.
Losses in cell are due to factors such as sunlight reflection on the
cell surface, absorption of photons without formation of electron
and free hole, and recombination of electrons and free holes.
According to Fig. 1, characteristic equation of solar cell is expressed
by Eq. (1).
ipv ¼ Ipv  iD  ish ð1Þ
where Ipv is photo-generated current, iD is diode current,
ish ¼ ðv pv þ ipv Rse Þ=Rsh is leakage current, v pv and ipv are PV output
 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109 99

Fig. 1. The equivalent circuit of a solar cell.

voltage and current, respectively, Rse and Rsh are series and parallel Model parameters should be estimated in such a way that the
equivalent resistors of solar panel. Diode current is expressed based solar panel model would be able to recreate the above modes.
on I-V Characteristic of a Shockley diode by Eq. (2). The following cost function is considered to achieve this purpose.

vD  
V oc  V 
oc
iD ¼ I0 eaV t  1 ð2Þ cost function ¼ Ipv ;ref þ I0;ref eaV t  1 þ
Rsh

Isc Rse  I R 
where I0 is dark-saturation current, v D ¼ v pv þ ipv Rse is diode volt- þ Isc  Ipv ;ref þ I0;ref e aV t  1 þ
sc se
Rsh
age, a is ideality factor of the diode, V t ¼ ðN s  kb =eÞT is thermal volt-   V þI R  
age of the diode, N s is the number of series cells, kb is Boltzmann’s
mpp mpp se V mpp þ Impp Rse
þ Impp  Ipv ;ref þ I0;ref e aV t 1 þ
constant, e is the absolute value of electron’s charge, and T is tem- Rsh
perature of solar panel. By substituting Eq. (2) in (1), a characteristic ð6Þ
equation of solar panel, can be obtained as Eq. (3).
If the value of above cost function is equal to zero, the parameters of
 v þi R 
pv pv se v pv þ ipv Rse solar panel are estimated correctly.
ipv ¼ Ipv  I0 e aV t  1  ð3Þ Based on previous studies [21], I0;ref , in silicon cells is about
Rsh
100 pA; Ipv ;ref has a value of about 3–4 amp; a, depends on the type
In Eq. (3), the value of photo-generated current Ipv , varies with the and the physical structure of the diode and has a value between 1
temperature and solar radiation based on Eq. (4) [12]. and 2; Parallel resistance Rsh , represents the internal losses or leak-
age current of Shockley diode which usually has a value of about
G 200–400 X; and Series resistance Rse , which is connected to the
Ipv ¼ ½Ipv ;ref þ K I ðT  T n Þ ð4Þ
Gn solar panel terminal, depends on the cell fabrication quality and
where Ipv ;ref is photo-generated current at standard conditions, K I is has a small value about 0.05–0.1 X.
Short-Circuit coefficient of temperature at standard conditions, and
G is solar radiation. Gn ¼ 1000 W=m2 and T n ¼ 25  C are standard 3. Improved Double Integral Sliding Mode Controller (IDISMC)
test conditions of solar panel.
In Eq. (3), dark-saturation current value I0 varies with the tem- A PV system consists of a solar panel, a dc to dc converter, a
perature based on Eq. (5). MPPT controller and a load. A topology of a stand-alone PV system
connected to a load is shown in Fig. 3.
 3   
T e  Eg 1 1 In these systems, converter is an intermediary between load
I0 ¼ I0;ref exp  ð5Þ and solar panel and tracks the maximum power point of solar sys-
Tn kb  a  V t T n T
tem by its duty cycle variation. Changes in duty cycle of converter
where I0;ref is dark-saturation current at standard conditions, and are made by a controller. Any simple, fast, accurate and reliable
Eg ¼ 1:121½1  0:0002677ðT  T n Þ is the band gap energy of the sil- control method that can provide maximum power point for solar
icon based on electron volts [23]. panel is desirable and thus a basic need of these systems.
Validity and accuracy of model presented in Fig. 1 depends
heavily on the estimation of the parameters Ipv ;ref , I0;ref , Rse , Rsh 3.1. State equations of boost converter
and a. In this paper, these parameters were estimated using a GA
optimization method. Generally, converters used in PV systems are mainly of buck or
boost type [24]. In this paper, a detailed model of the DC-DC boost
2.1. Estimation of the parameters of solar panel converter is used for the simulation. Voltage stabilization on the
output of PV systems by these converters is usually carried out
Solar panel manufacturers present a catalog where N s , K I and through Pulse width Modulation (PWM) at a fixed frequency.
output voltage and current parameters of the produced solar panel Switching in this converter is performed by one of the elements
at standard test conditions in the following modes, are specified. of MOSFET, BJT or IGBT. Fig. 4(a) and (b), show equivalent circuit
of boost converter in open and closed switch operations, respec-
– Open-circuit conditions: v pv ¼ V oc and ipv ¼ 0. tively [20].
– Short-circuit conditions: v pv ¼ 0, ipv ¼ Isc . According to Fig. 4(a), dynamic equations of system in open
switch operation can be expressed by Eqs. (7) and (8).
– Maximum power conditions: v pv ¼ V mpp and ipv ¼ Impp .
1 1
By plotting a smooth curve that connects these three points to
v_ pv ¼  iL þ v pv ð7Þ
c1 c 1 r pv
each other, the current-voltage variation curve of a solar panel at
standard test conditions can be obtained. I-V Characteristic of a _iL ¼ 1 v pv  1 v o ð8Þ
sample solar panel is shown in Fig. 2. L L
100 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

Fig. 2. I-V characteristic of a sample solar panel.

In the above equations, v o is load voltage and rpv is dynamic resis-

tance of solar panel, which is defined by Eq. (11).
 
@ v pv
r pv ¼  ð11Þ
@ipv
Eqs. (7)–(10), in open and closed switch operations, are different in
just one part. Assuming d as duty cycle of control signal u for con-
trolling the switch, these equations can be rewritten into Eqs. (12)
and (13) in state space form.
1 1
v_ pv ¼  iL þ v pv ð12Þ
c1 c 1 r pv

_iL ¼ 1 v pv  ð1  dÞ 1 v o ð13Þ
Fig. 3. Topology of a stand-alone PV system. L L
In these equations, d ¼ 0 and d ¼ 1 indicates open and closed switch
According to Fig. 4(b), when the switch is closed, then operations, respectively. In above equations, v pv and iL are state
variables and d is input variable of the system.
1 1
v_ pv ¼  iL þ v pv ð9Þ
c1 c1 r pv 3.2. MPPT design

1
i_L ¼ v pv ð10Þ At the maximum power point, v pv is equal to V mpp and ipv is
L equal to Impp . It should be noted that in steady state condition,

Fig. 4. Boost converter schematic; (a) when switch is open, (b) when switch is closed.
 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109 101

Z
current flow from the capacitor c1 is very small and thus, iL also at a1 ðV_ ref  v_ pv Þ þ a2 ðV ref  v pv Þ þ a3 ðV ref  v pv Þdt þ a4 ðI_ref  _iL Þ
the maximum power point is almost equal to Impp . So, in order to
 
design maximum power point tracker, first values of V ref and Iref s
þ Kjsja sat ¼0 ð22Þ
which are V mpp and Impp in different weather conditions, must be /
identified. When load is disconnected from circuit, the last term
of Eq. (3) is ignored, giving Eq. (14). Due to presence of jsja in s_ , the speed of reaching to sliding surface
    increases with distance. In this equation, a is a number between
V oc zero and one. Also, / is a small number that is used to reduce the
0 ¼ Ipv  Io exp 1 ð14Þ
Ns V t chattering. As a result, using Eqs. (12) and (13), the control input
d will be obtained as Eq. (23).
So, without load being disconnected from the system, open circuit

voltage of V oc can be calculated by solving relation (14) as follows. L a1 a
d¼ a1 V_ ref  v pv þ 1 iL þ a2 e1 þ a3 e2 þ a4 I_ref

I pv þ I o
 a4 v o c 1 r pv c1
V oc ¼ Ns V t ln ð15Þ  
a4 a4 s
Io  v pv þ v o þ Kjsja sat ð23Þ
L L /
After calculating V oc , value of V ref is calculated as follows [20].
V ref ¼ K oc V oc ð16Þ 3.3. Stability demonstration
where K oc is the substance coefficient and is related to structure and
material of PV module. K oc usually varies with the age and condition To analysis system stability, positive definite Lyapunov function
of PV module. This coefficient change over significantly long is considered as follows:
durations. 1 2
Various experiments on solar panels have shown that value of V¼ s ð24Þ
2
Iref is a function of radiation intensity G. It can be proved that rela-
To maintain stability condition of Lyapunov theorem;
tion between these two variables is approximately linear and can h
i
be expressed by the following equation. V_ ¼ ss_ ¼ s Kjsja sat /s must always be negative definite and thus

Iref ¼ K G G ð17Þ coefficient K should be selected as positive. This means that applied
control signal d, according to Eq. (23), guarantees that system error
where K G is the substance coefficient and is related to structure and in a limited time reaches zero. In [20] has been shown that to
substance of PV module. The first step in designing a maximum achieve the stable condition of Lyapunov theorem (ss_ < 0), the
power point tracker based on SMC is to define the switching sur- selected constant K must be sufficiently large.
face. Sliding surface s should be designed to provide optimal system
performance and satisfy the desired control purposes. This means 4. Determination of switching surface coefficients
that optimal control system performance can be expected when-
ever system somehow has to move on above surface [19]. Switching To determine switching surface coefficients, first, values of s and
surface is usually defined by a linear combination of state variables s_ in Eqs. (19) and (20) must be zero. By doing this, Eqs. (25) and
error and its derivatives, as follows: (26) are obtained.
 n1 Z
d a2
s¼ þb eðxÞ ð18Þ V ref  v pv ¼  ðV ref  v pv Þdt
dt a1
Z Z
a3 a4
where n is sliding surface order and eðxÞ is state variable tracking  ðV ref  v pv Þdt dt  ðIref  i_L Þ ð25Þ
error of x. If it is assumed that n ¼ 1, sliding surface will be: a1 a1
s ¼ eðxÞ. When designing a double integral sliding mode controller, Z
a1 a2 a3
tracking error is defined as follows: I_ref  i_L ¼  ðV_ ref  v_ pv Þ  ðV ref  v pv Þ  ðV ref  v pv Þdt
a4 a4 a4
eðxÞ ¼ a1 e1 þ a2 e2 þ a3 e3 þ a4 e4 ð19Þ
ð26Þ
where R R R
Considering, y1 ¼ f ðV ref  v pv Þdtgdt,
y2 ¼ ðV ref  v pv Þdt and
e1 ¼ V ref  v pv _
y3 ¼ Iref  iL , the following equations are obtained.
Z
e2 ¼ ðV ref  v pv Þdt y_ 1 ¼ y2 ð27Þ
Z Z ð20Þ
e3 ¼ ðV ref  v pv Þdt dt a2 a3 a4
y_ 2 ¼  y  y  y ð28Þ
a1 2 a1 1 a1 3
e4 ¼ Iref  iL

a1 _ 1 1 a a
And a1 to a4 coefficients are constants, whose values will be y_ 3 ¼  V ref  v pv þ iL  2 ðV ref  v pv Þ  3 y2 ð29Þ
obtained by using Hurwitz Stability Theorem. To obtain control sig- a4 c 1 r pv c1 a4 a4
nal d, sliding surface and its derivative must be considered to be
zero. By doing this, steady-state error will approach zero. Switching The set of linear Eq. (30) are obtained by linearization with Taylor
surface derivative is calculated by the following equation. expansion around the equilibrium point.

s_ ¼ a1 e_ 1 þ a2 e_ 2 þ a3 e_ 3 þ a4 e_ 4 ð21Þ 2 3 2 3 2 3
y_ 1 y1 0 1 0

 6_ 7 6 7 6 a 7
Considering s_ ¼ Kjsja sat s
[20] and substituting it into the above 4 y2 5 ¼ A4 y2 5; A ¼ 4  a31  aa21  aa41 5 ð30Þ
/

equation give Eq. (22). y_ 3 y3 A31 A32 A33

102 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

where chromosome has five parts: Ipv ;ref , I0;ref , Rse , Rsh and a. To represent
a3 1 a2 a3 each chromosome, the binary coding system was used. The bit
A31 ¼  þ strings of each parameters should be decoded by Eq. (31).
a4 c1 r pv a1 a4
pmax  pmin
p ¼ pmin þ d ð31Þ
a2 1 a2 a3 2l  1
A32 ¼  þ 2 
a4 c1 r pv a1 a4 a4 where p is the bit string of one of the parameters Ipv ;ref , I0;ref , Rse , Rsh
and a; pmin and pmax are the minimum and maximum values of the
1 1 a1 a2 parameter p, respectively; d is the decimal value of the bit string;
A33 ¼ þ  þ
c1 r pv c1 a4 a1 and l is the length of the bit string. Note that the values of l, pmin
and pmax is determined by user.
According to Hurwitz stability theorem, matrix A is stable if and
The numbers of bits of each part, based on the required accu-
only if all its Eigen values have negative real part. By finding char-
racy and according to engineering experience, were selected equal
acteristic equation of matrix A by using equation jkI  Aj and equat-
to 20. Minimum and maximum values of these parameters, accord-
ing it to a stable desirable characteristic equation such as
ing to the description provided in Section 2.1, are considered in
ðk þ 1Þðk þ 2Þðk þ 3Þ, the coefficients of switching surface s will be
accordance with Eq. (32).
obtained. By doing this and assuming a4 ¼ 1, other coefficients are
obtained as follows: 1:0e  7 6 I0;ref 6 1:5e  7
1 3:7 6 Ipv ;ref 6 4
a1 ¼ 6c1  ; a2 ¼ 11c1 ; and a3 ¼ 6c1
r pv 1 6 a 6 1:5 ð32Þ
According to the above values, it can be seen that value of a1 is a
0:01 6 Rse 6 0:5
function of r pv and thus varies dynamically with conditions. 300 6 Rsh 6 400
In the GA, the first generation begins to search for the optimal
5. The simulation results response by a series of random solutions called the initial popula-
tion. The initial population has 3000 chromosomes and later, these
MSX-60 PV module made by Solarex is selected for simulation. solutions and genetic operators of selection, crossover and mutation
Information about this module under standard test conditions are are used to build the next new population. Usually, the new popu-
available on the datasheet provided by its manufacturer and are lation is fitter, which means that the next generation is better than
given in Table 1. the older one. This process will continue when the numbers of gen-
Information about the elements in the boost converter used in erations reaches to 2000.
this study are presented in Table 2 [20]. The most important operator in GAs is crossover operator.
In Section 5.1, the results of the use of GA optimization method Crossover in GA eliminates dispersion or genetic variation. In this
to estimate parameters of PV modules model are presented. The study, Single point crossover is used. Mutation is another operator
simulation results of MPPT in different weather conditions are and produces other possible solution. For simulations of this sec-
shown in Section 5.2. Finally, in Section 5.3, a comparative analysis tion, mutation probability is assumed to be 0.15. Roulette wheel
with other methods are presented to show the effectiveness of the method is used to select parents. Finally, the best solution found
proposed controller. in the search process, must be decoded to obtain their actual form
by Eq. (31).
5.1. Estimation of the parameters of solar panel by GA The results obtained from the use of GA to estimate the param-
eters of studied solar panel are as follows:
There are five parameters in the single diode model of PV sys-
I0;ref ¼ 1:60623e  7
tem including the photo-generated current at standard conditions
(Ipv ;ref ), the dark-saturation current at standard conditions (I0;ref ),
Ipv ;ref ¼ 3:802346
the series equivalent resistor of solar panel (Rse ), the parallel
equivalent resistor of solar panel (Rsh ) and the ideality factor of
a ¼ 1:319639
the diode (a) which must be estimated by the GA. Therefore, each

Table 1 Rse ¼ 0:1936763

MSX-60 PV module information [20].

Parameter Value Rsh ¼ 313:3311

Isc 2.8 A In Figs. 5–10, examples of I-V, P-V and P-I characteristics are plotted
Voc 21.6 V by values of estimated parameters in the previous section for tested
Impp 2.2 A
solar panel in the states of,
Vmpp 18.2 V
KI 0.06%/K (1) Solar radiation is 1000 W=m2 and temperatures are 0, 25, 50,
Ns 36 75 and 100  C
(2) Temperature is 25  C and Solar radiations are 200, 400, 600,
800 and 1000 W=m2
Table 2
Boost converter information.
In these curves, effects of temperature change and solar radia-
Parameter Value tion change on these characteristics are quite clear and evident.
RL 20 X According to this fact that the solar panel output voltage and cur-
L 5 mH rent values at maximum power point (V ref and Iref to design
C1 380 lF
IDISMC) are obtained by values of these curves. V oc and V ref values
C2 330 lF
Switching frequency of IGBT 10 kHz to calculate the K oc and G and Iref to obtain K G are given in Tables 3
and 4, respectively.
N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109 103

Fig. 5. Effect of temperature change on the I-V characteristic.

Fig. 6. Effect of temperature change on the P-V characteristic.

Fig. 7. Effect of temperature change on the P-I characteristic.

104 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

Fig. 8. Effect of solar radiation change on the I-V characteristic.

Fig. 9. Effect of solar radiation change on the P-V characteristic.

Fig. 10. Effect of solar radiation change on the P-I characteristic.

 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109 105

Table 3
V oc , V ref and Iref for proposed controller at different temperatures and solar radiation of 1000 W=m2 .

Temperature (°C)
0 25 50 75 100
Voc (V) 23.62 21.10 19.22 17.84 16.86
Vref (V) 19.70 17.20 15.18 13.90 12.81
Iref (A) 3.48 3.48 3.51 3.48 3.50

Table 4
V oc , V ref and Iref for proposed controller at 25  C and different solar radiation.

Irradiance (W/m2)
200 400 600 800 1000
Voc (V) 19.06 19.95 20.46 20.82 21.10
Vref (V) 15.71 16.39 16.75 16.90 17.20
Iref (A) 0.66 1.37 2.08 2.80 3.48

5.2. MPPT by the proposed controller Assuming h1 and h2 as upper and lower limits of value of output
voltage of the PV cell at steady-state, respectively, chattering mag-


In s_ ¼ Kjsja sat s
, a, / and K are assumed equal to 0.01, 0.97 nitude can be obtained by Eq. (33).
/

and 10e10, respectively. First, it is assumed that the temperature is h ¼ h1  h2 ð33Þ

25  C and solar radiation is 1000 W=m2 . According to Table 3, in
these conditions, the values of 17.20 V and 3.48 A, should be
tracked. In Figs. 11–14, changes of the solar panel output voltage,
the solar panel output current, tracking voltage error and tracking
current error after applying the IDISMC are shown, respectively.
The performance of the proposed controller was also tested in
other weather conditions. For example, Figs. 15–18 show the
changes of solar panel output voltage, solar panel output current
and voltage tracking error, at 75  C and solar radiation of 400 W=m2 .
In this case, the values of 12.99 V and 1.37 A must be tracked. As
can be seen in these figures, the desirable performance of IDISMC
in various conditions has been maintained and tracking operations
have been carried out as well.
5.3. Discussion
Chattering and steady-state error are two important factors that
must be investigated to evaluate the performance of the IDISMC.
The steady-state error value of output voltage of PV cell is also cal-
culated by Eq. (34).
SSE ¼ maxðjV ref  h1 j; jV ref  h2 jÞ ð34Þ
In Table 5, the results of the proposed method in this paper and
other methods provided in [20], in standard conditions, are com-
pared in terms of chattering magnitude (33) and steady-state error
(34).
As can be seen in the results of this table, the proposed con-
troller outperforms the five controllers provided in [20]. The rea-
sons for this superiority is not only the use of double integral of
voltage error in the definition of switching surface, but also the
two following factors:
(1) Using current error in the definition of switching surface;
(2) Using Hurwitz stability theorem to calculate accurately the
switching surface.

Fig. 11. The solar panel output voltage at 25  C and solar radiation of 1000 W=m2 .
106 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109

Fig. 12. The solar panel output current at 25  C and solar radiation of 1000 W=m2 .

Fig. 13. Voltage error at 25  C and solar radiation of 1000 W=m2 .

Fig. 14. Current error at 25  C and solar radiation of 1000 W=m2 .

 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109 107

Fig. 15. Solar panel output voltage at 75  C and solar radiation of 400 W=m2 .

Fig. 16. Solar panel output current at 75  C and solar radiation of 400 W=m2 .

Fig. 17. Voltage error at 75  C and solar radiation of 400 W=m2 .

108 N. Chatrenour et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 139 (2017) 97–109
Fig. 18. Current error at 75  C and solar radiation of 400 W=m2 .
Table 5
Comparison of the performance of control methods presented in [20] and the proposed controller in standard conditions.
MPPT controller
P&O Adaptive P&O
h (V) 6 4
SSE (V) 2.865 1.865
Another advantage of the proposed tracker, in addition to taking
into account the uncertainties in weather conditions and load
changes, is the use of PWM method in order to keep constant the
switching frequency in dc to dc converter. Thus, keeping the
switching frequency constant, leads to easier design of control cir-
cuits and filter.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, first, parameters of solar panel model were esti-
mated by GA. Then, a Double Integral SMC for MPPT was proposed.
The performance of the proposed controller was improved by
selecting the accurate switching surface coefficients using the Hur-
witz stability method. Comparison of simulation results with the
other methods proposed in the literature showed that the use of
IDISMC leads to accurate tracking and very small chattering mag-
nitude and steady-state error. Furthermore, the system is robust
against parametric and nonparametric uncertainties and is much
easier to design and fabricate.
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