ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

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ISA Transactions
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/isatrans

Research article

A two-stage MPPT controller for PV system based on the improved

artificial bee colony and simultaneous heat transfer search algorithm
∗
Linjuan Gong a,b , , Guolian Hou a , Congzhi Huang a,c
a
School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
b
Xi’an Thermal Power Research Institute Co., Ltd., Xi’an 710054, China
c
Key Laboratory of Power Station Energy Transfer Conversion and System, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller can monitor the voltage and current of
Received 17 June 2021 photovoltaic (PV) array in real-time to acquire the maximum power output for battery charging in
Received in revised form 4 June 2022 PV system. In order to improve the accuracy and rapidity of tracking process, a bionic two-stage
Accepted 4 June 2022
MPPT control strategy composed of fast positioning stage and precise determination stage is proposed
Available online xxxx
in this paper for optimizing the duty cycle d of DC–DC converter. Firstly, an improved artificial bee
Keywords: colony algorithm with simplified probability selection mechanism and novel employed bee phase is
Maximum power point tracking presented to balances exploration and exploitation for excellent rapidity in positioning rough search
Photovoltaic (PV) system region around global peak. Then, the simultaneous heat transfer search (SHTS) algorithm is adopted
Partial shading conditions for accurately acquiring the global maximum power point in obtained search region. On the one hand,
Improved artificial bee colony
the SHTS can reduce the subjectivity in artificial setting of the parameters to ensure the universality
Simultaneous heat transfer search
and accuracy of search process. On the other hand, the parallel search in SHTS can decrease the
optimization time effectively. Finally, extensive simulation results illustrate that this two-stage MPPT
strategy shows excellent performance in precisely identifying the GMPP of PV system with phenomenal
rapidity among multiple peaks. Moreover, it outperforms all the counterparts in tracking speed and
accuracy under partial shading conditions.
© 2022 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction PV module caused by existences of ash, leaves, clouds, and other

Since thermal power generation still dominates nowadays
power supply, the intensified energy shortage and environmental
pollution from the use of fossil fuel always be crucial problems
to be solved with great efforts. Thus, the power generation from
renewable energy has become a promising mainstream trend [1].
Considering the easy accessibility, environmental friendliness,
and abundant availability, solar energy is regarded as an admired
energy sources [2,3]. Photovoltaic (PV) array is composed of PV
modules in serial or parallel to absorb solar energy and coordinate
the current and voltage for power output [4,5]. The efficiency
of PV module is sensitive to external factors, such as ambient
temperature, solar irradiance, and present state of module [6–8].
Therefore, it is challenging to keep the output power of PV array
at the maximum power point (MPP). Ideally, there is just one MPP
of PV array under uniform illumination. However, multiple local
MPPs (LMPPs) would appears from unavoidable partial shade of
∗ Corresponding author at: School of Control and Computer Engineering,
North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.
E-mail address: gljncepu@163.com (L. Gong).
covers in the real world [9–12].
The purpose of MPPT controller is to maintain the power
generation of PV array at the global MPP (GMPP) under any
illumination conditions, including partial occlusion [13,14]. Var-
ious traditional MPPT algorithms, such as perturb and observe
(P&O), incremental conductance (IC), hill climbing, and sliding
mode control have achieved great developments [15–18]. A hy-
brid MPPT structure fused the iterative learning control in oscil-
lations eliminating and P&O in dynamic performance promoting
was used to ensure the efficiency and robustness of MPPT [19].
In view of two aspects in tracking performance improvements for
PV system, the voltage-based current control for fast converters
response and momentum-based P&O approach for peak tracking
were combined in [20]. Under control of this proposed track-
ing method, the tracking speed could be effectively promoted
while the oscillations were reduced by 30%. In addition, a novel
P&O algorithm [21] revealed less oscillation around MPP with
high tracking performance. Nevertheless, the influences of chang-
ing environmental conditions like the partial shading conditions
(PSCs) were ignored. The combination of oscillation detection,
dynamic boundary, and intelligent prediction in an enhanced
adaptive P&O method mitigated the limitations of the conven-
tional P&O [22]. However, the performance of this algorithm

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2022.06.005
0019-0578/© 2022 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang, A two-stage MPPT controller for PV system based on the improved artificial bee colony and simultaneous heat
transfer search algorithm. ISA Transactions (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2022.06.005.
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Nomenclature ki Temperature coefficient of Isc −STC

G Actual solar irradiance
Acronyms Io Reverse saturation current of the diode
kv Temperature coefficient of Voc −STC
MPPT Maximum power point tracking
VT Diode thermal voltage
PV Photovoltaic
kb Boltamann’s constant
MPP Maximum power point
q Charge of one electron
LMPPs Local MPPs
t On–off period of the IGBT
GMPP Global MPP
Uin , Uout Input and output voltage of IGBT
P&O Perturb and observe
ton , toff On-period and off-period of IGBT
IC Incremental conductance
dm Current optimal honey source
FLC Fuzzy logical control
Pm Fitness of current optimal honey source
ANN Artificial neural network
Q Times of nectar source has not been
PSO Particle swarm optimization
updated
ICPSO Improved chaotic PSO
Lim Threshold of Q
FFA Fusion firefly algorithm
Np Population size
GWO Grey wolf optimization
K The maximum iteration number
ABC Artificial bee colony
α Transition constant
IABC Improved ABC
Dim Search dimension
HTS Heat transfer search
di,j d of the jth search dimension for the ith
SHTS Simultaneous HTS
bee
DC–DC Direct current–direct current
dmax , dmin The maximum and minimum value of d
STC Standard test conditions
dmax1 , dmin1 Upper and lower bound of d in SHTS
IGBT Insulated gate bipolar transistor
d∗i,j Locations of new nectar sources
USC Uniform shading condition
Pi∗,j Fitness of new nectar sources
PSCs Partial shading conditions
c Update coefficient
Variables c1 , c2 A larger and small value of coefficient c
Ns Sub-population size in SHTS
D1 Bypass diode
dD Sub-population under conduction phase
D2 Blocking diode
dV Sub-population under convection phase
IPV Output current of PV array
dR Sub-population under radiation phase
VPV Output voltage of PV array
dR1 , dR2 Two equal parts in dR
P Output power of PV array
Pmax Maximum power
IL Current through the inductance
Vmp , Imp Voltage and current at Pmax
L Inductance
ts GMPP tracking time
C Capacitance
η Tracking accuracy of MPPT controller
D Diode
Ppv Actual maximum power of PV system
M PV modules connected in parallel
PGMPP Theoretical GMPP of PV array
N PV modules connected in series
Rload Load of PV system
Iload The current through the Rload
Vload The voltage across the Rload closely depended on careful selection of initial parameters. Aim-
d Duty cycle of the boost converter ing at MPPT of PV array which tied to the power grid, a linear
S The solar irradiance of PV cell IC method with excellent rapidity and efficiency was presented
T The junction temperature of PV cell in [23]. Based on the obtained optimal capacitance, inductance
Iph Photocurrent as well as duty cycle of converter, this approach realized the
ID Current through the diode prime matching of configuration between PV system and DC/AC
Rs Series resistance converter. To avoid divergences of basic IC algorithm under fast
variation of luminosity levels and promote system efficiency, a
Rsh Shunt resistance
new IC method was used to harvest the GMPP through region
ns Cells number in a string of PV module
transformation of operation point without assistance of external
B Ideality factor of diode forces [24]. Unfortunately, the slow time response at earlier stage
VT Thermal voltage of diode of power tracking was unavoidable obstacle. Owing to the re-
Isc −STC Short circuit current under STC lationship between output power of PV array and duty cycle of
Voc −STC Open circuit voltage under STC the power converter, a hill climbing method was introduced [25].
GSTC Solar irradiance under STC Although the addition of sun-horizon angle extended MPPT range
TSTC Cell temperature under STC to a large scale, the smoothness of applied algorithm under shel-
AMSTC Spectral condition under STC tered PV module needs further promotion. Besides, a sliding mode
MPPT including one controller and two observers ensured the
power convergence in a finite time for overcoming defect of un-
modeled dynamics and external perturbations [26]. The nonlinear
sliding model MPPT approach achieved the promotions of power
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L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
output and system robustness under disturbance [27]. However,
it was difficult for these methods to coordinate tracking speed
and accuracy under PSCs.
To deal with the drawbacks of conventional MPPT algorithms,
a variety of intelligent MPPT strategies blossomed [28,29], such as
fuzzy logical control (FLC) [30], artificial neural network (ANN) [31],
bionic algorithm [32–35] and so on. In order to realize the MPPT
through soft computing technics, an MPPT driven FLC method
was designed in [36]. The adopted FLC could address the tracking
process without accurate mathematical expressions, even non-
linear form. In [37], an ANN-based highly sophisticated MPPT
algorithm was presented for PV system. Because of the simple
single-stage structure of the used ANN, the processing time and
memory allocations for generating the GMPP in MPPT had been
reduced effectively. However, the tracking precision of GMPP
was the main problem to be concerned in aforementioned MPPT
approaches considering the FLC and ANN, respectively. Among all
these intelligent methods, the global scan of P–V curve is unnec-
essary in bionic algorithm based MPPT process, which is benefit
for reductions of calculation burden and tracking time [38,39].
Furthermore, the blending of bionic algorithms reveals excellent
advantages in tracking the GMPP accurately [40,41]. Therefore,
the bionic algorithms won widespread support from experts and
scholars in MPPT control. A novel MPPT technique coordinat-
ing the improved chaotic particle swarm optimization (ICPSO)
in [42] adopted the chaotic mutation to avoid the local opti-
mal. Although the proposed MPPT showed outstanding tracking
performance, the relevant quantitative design methods needed
further discussion. Aiming at MPPT of PV system under PSCs,
a fusion firefly algorithm (FFA) which possessed a simplified
propagation strategy was presented to pursuit high accuracy and
zero oscillations [43]. Nevertheless, the search diversity of FFA
was not fully concerned. In [44], the grey wolf optimization
(GWO) algorithm and FLC were fused for realization of MPPT
strategy. The coordination of GWO and FLC was proved to be
beneficial in catching the GMPP and eliminating the steady-state
oscillations of PV system. However, the tracking rapidity needed
further increasing. Besides, a squirrel search algorithm was used
in MPPT scheme and showed tenable superiorities in convergence
time reduction [45]. Apart from its applicability under various
irradiation conditions, analyses about tracking accuracy should be
included. In [46], an enhanced salp swarm (ESSA) algorithm was
presented to optimize anti-windup fractional-order proportional–
integral controller for MPPT. The ESSA extended the exploration
and exploitation of original algorithm and ESSA-based MPPT
could deal with the stochastic behavior of PV system. To pro-
mote the convergence rapidity of MPPT, a modified butterfly
optimization algorithm adopted in [47]. Under this novel opti-
mization algorithm, different shading patterns, solar intensity,
and load variation could be reasonable differentiated. Moreover,
the tracking time was effectively reduced. In [48], the PSO and
fireworks algorithm were combined for balancing the exploration
and exploitation in MPPT. Simulation results have shown that the
tracking speed of GMPP could be improved to a certain extent.
The aforementioned bionic algorithms including PSO, FFA,
GWO and SSA revealed respective advantages in MPPT under
diverse occlusion conditions of PV system. However, most of
these could not take into account both convergence speed and
precision at the same time in MPPT. Under this circumstance, a
comprehensive method for fast and accurately MPPT is essential.
The artificial bee colony (ABC) reveals excellent advantages of
wide search range, less tuned parameters, and initial value in-
dependence from appearance [49]. In spite of some successful
attempts [50–53], the applications of ABC in MPPT control of
PV system are relatively less, and there is also much room for
performance promotion of ABC based MPPT. Therefore, an im-
proved ABC (IABC) is proposed in this paper and introduced into
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ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx
early stage of MPPT for fast positioning of rough search region
around global peak. Compared with the most meta-heuristic
algorithms, the IABC reveals wider search space which can ensure
the search diversity of the early stage and free from the influence
of premature convergence. Besides, the heat transfer search (HTS)
is an optimization approach whose core idea came from ther-
modynamics law in heat transfer [54]. Then, the simultaneous
HTS (SHTS) algorithm which achieved the parallel operation of
three heat transfer modes emerged for lower computational com-
plexity [55]. It can accelerate calculation speed thoroughly while
maintain satisfactory search precision. Unfortunately, the SHTS
is rarely used in PV system. Thus, the SHTS will be coordinated
with IABC in this paper for precisely determining the GMPP of
PV system. The introduction of SHTS can effectively speed up the
convergence rapidity of the search process of GMPP. Therefore,
in this paper, the proposed two-stage MPPT controller combining
the IABC and SHTS will realize synchronous promotions of precise
and rapidity in GMPP tracking by adjusting the duty cycle of con-
verter in PV system dynamically. The novelties and corresponding
contributions are displayed as:
(1) A two-stage MPPT scheme which coordinates the fast posi-
tion stage and accurate determination stage is established
and first implemented in the MPPT control of PV system
under various illumination conditions.
(2) In fast position stage of the proposed MPPT scheme, to
quickly found the rough scope of GMPP, a IABC approach
based on simplified probability selection mechanism and
exploration–exploitation balanced employed bee phase is
adopted to ameliorate the GMPP search diversity and effi-
ciency.
(3) In accurate determination stage of the adopted two-stage
MPPT controller, to obtain the precise location of the GMPP
in a short time, the SHTS algorithm is introduced for max-
imizing its superiorities in subjectivity reducing and opti-
mization rapidity promoting.
(4) Extensive simulation tests are carried out for feasibility
verification of the proposed two-stage MPPT approach. Be-
sides, this two-stage strategy is proved to be tenable com-
pared with other counterparts in realizing the balance be-
tween tracking accuracy and convergence speed.
The rest of this paper is organized in following four sections. A
description of the PV system under PSCs is given in Section 2,
which contains the introduction of PV cell, PV array, as well as
the characteristics of the PV system. Then, the proposed two-
stage MPPT controller is established in Section 3. Furthermore,
in Section 4, the simulation experiments are carried out for the
performance validation of adopted MPPT technic. Finally, some
conclusions are given in Section 5.
2. Description of PV system
The simplified structure diagram of typical PV system which
consists of PV array, direct current–direct current (DC–DC) volt-
age converter, MPPT controller, load, as well as auxiliary connect-
ing wires is shown in Fig. 1 for the convenience of discussion.
In the illustrated PV system, D1 , D2 represent the bypass diode
and blocking diode respectively, Ipv and Vpv are output current
(A) and output voltage (V) of PV array, IL is the current flowing
through inductance L, Iload is the current flowing through load
Rload while Vload is the voltage across the Rload . The boost converter
is chosen as the used DC–DC voltage converter for its simplicity
and efficiency. The C, L, and D stand for the capacitance, induc-
tance, and diode in boost converter, respectively. The duty cycle
d of boost converter is adjusted dynamically by MPPT controller
according to the measured Ipv and Vpv for higher output power of
PV system.
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 1. Structure diagram of PV system.

Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit of PV cell.

Then, the I–V characteristics of a M × N PV array can be

expressed as Eq. (1) [38],
Vpv + (N /M)Rs Ipv
[ ( ) ]
Fig. 2. Architecture of PV array. Ipv = MIph − MIo exp −1
ns BVT
Vpv + (N /M)Rs Ipv
− (1)
2.1. Description of PV array under PSCs (N /M)Rth
in which, PV modules connected in parallel ns is the number of PV
A PV array is made up of PV modules connected in parallel and cells connected in one string of a PV module, the ideality factor
series. Meanwhile, each PV module contains a certain number of and the thermal voltage of diode are remarked as B and VT .
interconnected PV cells. The architecture of a M × N PV array is Denote the short circuit current and open circuit voltage
exhibited as Fig. 2. under standard test conditions (STC: solar irradiance GSTC =
In Fig. 2, the introduction of bypass diode is responsible for 1000 W/m2 , cell temperature TSTC = 25◦ C ) as I sc-STC and V oc-STC ,
suppressing hot spot addition effect and reducing power waste the photocurrent Iph is expressed as:
caused by PSCs. Meanwhile, the blocking diode is used to guard G
against the backflow of electricity. Iph = [Isc −STC + ki (T − TSTC )] (2)
GSTC
where ki stands for the temperature coefficient of I sc-STC while G
2.1.1. Modeling of PV array and T are deemed as the actual solar irradiance and cell temper-
As the smallest unit in the construction of PV array, the equiv- ature.
alent circuit of PV cell is revealed in Fig. 3. Meanwhile, the reverse saturation current Io , which related to
As shown in Fig. 3, S and T stand for the solar irradiance, junc- the temperature is calculated through Eq. (3).
tion temperature of PV cell respectively; Iph is the photocurrent Isc −STC + ki (T − TSTC )
while ID is the diode current; Rs and Rsh represent series resistance Io = ( ) (3)
Voc −STC +kv (T −TSTC )
and shunt resistance (Ω ). exp ns V T
−1
4
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Four cases with different shading conditions of PV array.

Table 1
The specific irradiation information of PV modules in four cases with different shading conditions.
Irradiation G11 (W/m2 ) G12 (W/m2 ) G13 (W/m2 ) G14 (W/m2 ) G21 (W/m2 ) G22 (W/m2 ) G23 (W/m2 ) G24 (W/m2 )
Case 1 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Case 2 1000 1000 900 600 1000 1000 800 500
Case 3 1000 800 600 500 1000 900 500 300
Case 4 900 600 500 300 800 500 300 100

where kv is the temperature coefficient of Voc −STC , and the diode
thermal voltage VT has following expression:
VT = k b T / q
in which, kb is the Boltamann’s constant that equals to 1.38065 ×
10−23 J /K , q is the charge of one electron and q = 1.60218 ×
10−19 C .
2.1.2. Characteristics of PV array under PSCs
Normal insolation, uniform and partial shading are three com-
mon irradiation conditions of PV array. Aiming at representative
analysis of PV array under even and uneven illuminations, a PV
array with two parallel connected series (each string contains
four modules) is adopted and four different shading cases are
illustrated in Fig. 4. The black squares on PV modules represent
partially sheltered parts of corresponding modules, which reflect
various irradiation conditions. Moreover, the specific irradiation
information of these four cases is illustrated in Table 1.
Ideally, the P–V curve of PV array reveals single peak under
uniform shading. However, when it comes to the PSCs, the mul-
tiple peaks will appear. The I–V curves and corresponding P–V
curves under aforementioned four cases are exhibited in Fig. 5,
respectively. The red asterisks marked on each curve stand for
the MPP in Case 1 and GMPP in Case 2, Case 3 and Case 4 whose
corresponding current, voltage and power values are also given.
It is obvious from Fig. 5 that the power generation efficiency
of PV system decreases substantially under PSCs, and the mul-
tiple peaks on P–V characteristics will increase the difficulty in
GMPP tracking. Since the existing of LMPP misleads the opti-
mization trend and final causes local optimum, it is significant to
study MPPT algorithms with powerful search capability and con-
vergence speed for applications on PV system, especially under
PSCs.
2.2. Description of DC-DC boost converter
By reason of prominent simplicity and transfer efficiency, the
boost converter has been widely applied in PV system. As shown
in Fig. 1, a boost converter is comprised of a capacitance (C ),
an inductance (L), a diode (D), and an insulated gate bipolar
transistor (IGBT). The energy absorbed by the inductor equals to
(4)
the energy released during an on–off period t of the IGBT, and
this equilibrium relationship can be expressed as:
Uin IL ton = (Uout − Uin )IL toff , t = ton + toff (5)
in which, Uin and Uout stand for the input voltage and output
voltage of IGBT, furthermore, ton and toff represent the on-period
and off-period of IGBT.
Then, the Eq. (5) can be deduced as Eq. (6).
ton + toff 1
Uout = Uin = Uin (6)
toff 1−d
where d is the duty cycle with following expression:
ton
d= (7)
ton + toff
Since the value of d is within [0,1], the Uout of converter is
promoted and the current IL changes accordingly. As long as
the output impedance matches internal resistance of battery, the
power of PV array reaches the MPP.
As for the description of PV system in this section, the main
task is designing a MPPT controller to dynamically adjust the duty
cycle d for acquirement of GMPP. However, the PSC of PV array
lays tremendous obstacle in guaranteeing the accuracy and speed
of GMPP tracking. Therefore, a novel two-stage MPPT controller
is constructed in this paper for optimization of d considering the
tracking precision and rapidity simultaneously.
3. The proposed two-stage MPPT strategy
The GMPP tracking performance of a PV system depends on
the dynamic duty cycle adjustment of boost converter by MPPT
controller. Thus, a well performing MPPT algorithm has won the
first importance in the fast and accuracy control of PV system.
Under this circumstance, a two-stage MPPT strategy is adopted
and made detail analysis in this section.
5
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
Fig. 5. I–V and P–V characteristics of PV array under different shading conditions.
Fig. 6. Global flowchart of proposed two-stage MPPT control strategy.
3.1. The two-stage MPPT controller for PV system under PSCs
The two-stage MPPT strategy caters to the requirement of
tracking performance in MPPT control process of PV system
whether under uniform or partial shading conditions. To illustrate
this search process concisely, the global flowchart of the process
is exhibited in Fig. 6. Moreover, the procedures of IABC and SHTS
in Fig. 6 are just described briefly for principles explanation of
the whole two-stage MPPT process, more details are illustrated
in Sections 3.2 and 3.3.
In Fig. 6, dm represents the current optimal honey source
with fitness Pm , Q is the number of a nectar source has not
been updated to the present moment, Lim is threshold of Q, K
is marked as the maximum iteration number.
The left part and right part of Fig. 6 indicate the early stage
and later stage of the established MPPT scheme, which known
as fast positioning stage and precise tracking stage, respectively.
Regarding the duty cycle d as the optimized parameter, output
power P as the fitness function. In the early stage, the IABC is used
for positioning the rough search region around global peak. In this
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ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx
stage, d corresponds to the nectar source and a relatively small
search region around GMPP will be found after the simplified
initialization, improved employed bee phase, onlooker bee phase
as well as the scout bee phase. Once this rough region satisfies
the termination condition, the SHTS is adopted in later stage for
accurate search of GMPP based on the final obtained d from the
early stage. Consequently, the GMPP can be easily acquired via a
parallel search process inspired by three heat transfer manners,
namely conduction, convection and radiation. As a combination
of two different optimization algorithms, the structure of pro-
posed MPPT controller is relatively complex compared with the
methods based on single optimization algorithm. Although there
are two stages needs to go through in the optimization process
which contains many defined formulas, the comprehensive con-
sideration of all the parts in proposed two-stage MPPT controller
contributes to the final satisfactory computational complexity.
In the before-mentioned two-stage MPPT strategy, the rea-
sonable transition from early stage to later stage is a crucial
problem should be paid enough attention here, and unreason-
able determination of transition conditions may affect the final
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
optimization performance. Thus, a termination condition of early
stage, in other words, the transition condition dc to next stage is
defined as follows.
⏐ ⏐ 1
dc = min ⏐di,j − dk,j ⏐ ≤ N
α
(i, k = 1, 2, . . . , Np; j = 1, 2, . . . , Dim; i ̸ = k)
where Np stands for the colony size of honey bees; N is the
number of PV modules connected in series; α is the transition
constant and α > N; Dim is the search dimension; di,j is the duty
cycle corresponding to jth search dimension of ith individuals in
bee flock.
If the number of iterations in early stage has reached the max-
imum iteration number K or satisfy the termination condition
shown in Eq. (8), the tracking process converts to the precise
tracking stage for accurate determination of GMPP using the SHTS
algorithm. This flexible definition of transition condition further
reduces the complexity.
It is worth mentioning that the upper bound dmax1 and lower
bound dmin1 in SHTS algorithm of later stage originate from the
finial duty cycle vector obtained in early stage, and have following
expressions:
{
dmax 1 = max(di,j )
(i = 1, 2, . . . , Np; j = 1, 2, . . . , Dim)
dmin 1 = min(di,j )
3.2. The IABC based fast positioning stage
The ABC algorithm put forward more perfectly at first by
Karaboga in 2005 [56] has proved to be an outstanding optimiza-
tion algorithm with few parameters, high population diversity
and strong search ability. However, its heavy computation and
slow optimization speed are main non-negligible obstacles in
the further development. The presented IABC is the modification
of original ABC considering the tracking performance of MPPT.
Different from the traditional ABC in which bees search for a
better solution near their location, each population member in
the IABC search near the current optimal solution because of
the introduction of initial selection strategy after the population
initialization. Furthermore, in the onlooker bee phase of IABC,
the optimal nectar source in employed bee phase is chosen by
onlooker bees immediately to simplify the probability calculation
and roulette selection. Under these conditions, the complexity of
IABC is obvious lower than ABC. Regarding the duty cycle d as
nectar source, the flowchart of IABC is briefly illustrated in Fig. 7.
As illustrated in Fig. 7, the steps of the IABC algorithm adopted
in MPPT can be summarized as follows.
Step 1. Initialization: Set the colony size of honey bees as Np,
search dimension as Dim, maximum iteration number as K, the
threshold of the number of a nectar source has not been updated
as Lim, meanwhile, the numbers of employed bee, onlooker bee,
and scout bee are equally set as Np. The initial locations of food
resources are obtained via Eq. (10).
di,j = dmin + rand(0, 1)(dmax − dmin )
(i = 1, 2, . . . , Np; j = 1, 2, . . . , Dim)
in which, dmax is the maximum value of duty cycle d while dmin
is the minimum value of d, rand(0,1) is a random number within
(0,1). Since the value of d is between 0 and 1, thus, dmax = 1, and
dmin = 0.
Step 2. Acquisition of the fitness: As for the task of MPPT
control, the output power of PV array is taken as the fitness func-
tion of IABC. Thus, calculate the fitness Pi,j (i = 1, 2, . . . , Np; j =
1, 2, . . . , Dim) of each initial resource through following equa-
tion:
Pi,j (di,j ) = Vpv−ij · Ipv−ij
ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx
where Vpv−ij and Ipv−ij are the voltage and current of PV array
when d = di,j .
Step 3. Initial selection: Different from the traditional ABC,
a current optimal honey source with maximum fitness Pm =
max(Pi,j ) is firstly selected and denoted as dm in this step.
Step 4. Employed bee phase: Deem the food source dm as the
(8)
known source for each employed bee, and the locations of new
sources is given as [56],
d∗i,j = dm + c · rand(−1, 1)(di,j − dk,j )
(k = 1, 2, . . . , Np; k ̸ = i; c ∈ (0, 1]) (12)
In order to avoid the premature convergence of search process,
the update coefficient c in Eq. (12) has diverse value at different
stage. As a result, the employed bee phase can be divided into
two phases with distinct update coefficient and marked as Phase
1 and Phase 2.
Phase 1: Aiming at the universality of search scope at early
stage, for example, i ≤ 3, the coefficient c is set as a larger
value c1 , and c1 ∈ [0.1, 1]. Then, the Eq. (12) can be expressed
as Eq. (13).
d∗i,j = dm + c1 · rand(−1, 1)(di,j − dk,j )
(i ≤ 3; k = 1, 2, . . . , Np; c1 ∈ [0.1, 1]) (13)
(9)
Phase 2: When i > 3, the coefficient c2 ∈ [0, 0.1) is chosen for
a higher precision of search process. Then, the Eq. (12) can be
formulated as
d∗i,j = dm + c2 · rand(−1, 1)(di,j − dk,j )(i > 3; c2 ∈ (0, 0.1)) (14)
Step 5. Calculation of fitness and greedy choice: Obtain the
fitness Pi∗,j of new nectar source d∗i,j via Eq. (11) and select the
optimal food source d∗m with fitness Pm ∗
= max(Pi∗,j ). Next, make
greedy choice between Pm ∗ ∗
and initial optimal fitness Pm , if Pm >
∗
Pm , the current optimal fitness Pm will be replaced with Pm , and
its corresponding source d∗m is denoted as dm , otherwise, keep the
original result unchanged.
Step 6. Onlooker bee phase: To simplify the probability cal-
culation and roulette selection of conventional ABC, the optimal
nectar source dm in employed bee phase is chosen by onlooker
bees immediately. Then, renew the location of nectar source using
Eqs. (13)–(14) and search for more excellent one using greedy
choice.
Step 7. Scout bee phase: Record the number that a food
resource has not been updated as Q and judge whether Q reaches
the threshold Lim. If Q ≥ Lim, this resource will be abandoned. At
the same time, the corresponding employed bee will convert into
a scout bee and go back to step 1 for new nectar source again.
Step 8. Judgment of the termination condition: If the number
of cycle times reaches the upper bound K, or the tracking ac-
curacy satisfies requirement, put the search process to an end.
Otherwise, go to step 1 for another cycle.
It can be seen from the aforementioned steps that compared
with the conventional ABC, the optimization mechanism of IABC
is more simple and reasonable, which contributes to the out-
(10) standing superiorities with high speed and extensive search ca-
pability in the fast positioning stage of MPPT control process.
3.3. The SHTS based precise tracking stage
Different from HTS, the population of SHTS is divided into
three subsets in every cycle at first. Then, one of the three heat
transfer manners which contains conduction, convection and ra-
diation is selected to match a group of sub-populations. Although
this process is a random matching procedure, the difference of
associated transfer manner for each subset should be ensured.
(11) After that, all the members in each group start to search for
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L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
Fig. 7. Flowchart of the IABC.
potential optimal solution through greedy choice until the op-
timal one is acquired. Thus, contrast to the serial search of HTS
algorithm, the SHTS has realized the parallel computation of three
heat transfer modes, which reduces the calculational complexity
of optimization process to a certain degree. According to the
design concept of adopted two-stage MPPT scheme, the SHTS
is responsible for re-optimizing the results obtained by IABC
to obtain higher tracking precision. Based on the upper bound
dmax 1 and lower bound dmin 1 originate from finial duty cycle
vector obtained in early stage, the detailed procedures of SHTS
are exhibited as following pseudocode [55].
In the before-mentioned two-stage MPPT algorithm, the ini-
tialization of duty cycle at each stage is a random process which
has avoided the dependence of the initial value and ensured
the universality of algorithm. In addition, the improvements of
IABC and SHTS both are stimulated by the promotions of tracking
rapidity and accuracy. The simplified optimization mechanism
of IABC, and the parallel search of SHTS not only reduce the
optimization time, but also increase the diversity of search pat-
tern and the breadth of search range. Therefore, the two-stage
controller shows remarkable tracking performance with lower
power fluctuation in the application to PV system under PSCs.
4. Simulation experiments
In order to verify the outstanding superiorities of the pro-
posed two-stage MPPT algorithm, extensive simulation experi-
ments rely on the PV system in Fig. 1 under different shading
conditions are carried out. The duty cycle d of DC–DC boost
converter is selected as the variable to be optimized. At first, the
8
ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx
parameters of a PV module and the boost converter are set as the
values displayed in Table 2.
The simulation experiments are designed with two types. The
first one is known as unchanged shading type which consisted
of the uniform shading and partial shading conditions. The sec-
ond one is denoted as the changed shading type, which is used
for the performance verification of MPPT controller when the
shading conditions change between uniform shading and partial
shading. Both these two kinds of experiments are based on the
four cases of solar irradiances of PV system shown in Fig. 4. To
distinguish the influences of PSCs on the PV system more explicit,
the temperature of PV array is kept on a constant value as 25 ◦ C in
experiments. Besides, based on general experience and extensive
simulation tests, the sampling time is set as 0.01s. Furthermore,
the parameters of the two-stage MPPT algorithm are selected as:
Np = 15, Dim = 3, K = 10, α = 40, Lim = 8, c1 = 0.5, and
c2 = 0.01.
To highlight the significant advantages of the described al-
gorithm, a fast MPPT approach coordinating the ICPSO in [42],
a hybrid MPPT controller depending on the P&O strategy and
ABC algorithm in [49], and the presented IABC based MPPT con-
troller are introduced for comparison and denoted as ICPSO MPPT,
P&O+ABC MPPT, and IABC MPPT, respectively. Besides, the pro-
posed two-stage MPPT approach are marked as IABC+SHTS MPPT.
It is noteworthy that the parameters of the comparative method
are selected carefully to exhibit similar performance with pro-
posed method, and improve the fairness of the comparison pro-
cess.
4.1. Simulation results under unchanged shading conditions
In this part, all the shading conditions displayed in Fig. 4 are
chosen as foundations of the simulations. Firstly, the ICPSO MPPT,
P&O+ABC MPPT, IABC MPPT and IABC+SHTS MPPT are applied to
the Case 1 which is regarded as uniform shading condition (USC).
The corresponding simulation results are exhibited in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 8, the magenta, blue, red, and green lines in each sub-
plot from top to bottom represent the responses of voltage Vpv ,
current Ipv , power P, and duty cycle d in PV system. Besides, the
performances of ICPSO MPPT, P&O+ABC MPPT, IABC MPPT and
IABC+SHTS MPPT are reflected from the results in sub-plots (a),
(b), (c) and (d), respectively. As shown in Fig. 5, the theoretical
value of MPP in Case 1 is 1145 W. Define the tracking time ts
as the response time from the beginning of simulation to the
moment when the tracking error of P is less than 2%. Thus, it just
takes 0.15s to reach the MPP for the PV system under control of
the two-stage MPPT controller, while the tracking times of other
three MPPT methods are as long as 0.22s, 0.18s and 0.23s from
Fig. 8. The response curves correspond to the adopted two-stage
MPPT reveal smaller stable error which almost equal to 0. More-
over, corresponding dynamic oscillation and static oscillation are
proved to be the smallest among all the peer algorithms. On the
contrary, there are obvious fluctuations on the respond curves of
PV system controlled by comparison MPPT methods even after a
long settling time. Therefore, the proposed scheme has evidently
promoted the tracking rapidity and precision of MPPT.
Then, aiming at the demonstrations of tracking speed and
accuracy of the proposed controller which fuses the IABC and
SHTS under PSCs, the Case 2, Case 3 and Case 4 mentioned in
Section 2 are discussed. The simulation results of MPPT control
of PV system under these three PSCs are shown in Figs. 9–11.
Figs. 9–11 depict the responses of the PV system controlled by
different comparison MPPT strategies under PSCs of Case 2, Case 3
and Case 4, respectively. Furthermore, all the items in Figs. 9–11
including the curves and sub-plots have similar meanings with
these in Fig. 8. Since the ideal GMPPs of PV array under Case
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

9
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 8. Tracking curves of PV system under USC controlled by different MPPT algorithms.

Fig. 9. Tracking responses of PV system under Case 2 controlled by different MPPT algorithms.

10
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 10. Tracking responses of PV system under Case 3 controlled by different MPPT algorithms.

Fig. 11. Tracking responses of PV system under Case 4 controlled by different MPPT algorithms.

11
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
Table 2
Parameters of the components of PV system.
Component Parameter
Pmax (W)
PV module
140
Cpv (µF)
Boost converter
1000
Fig. 12. Performance comparison of the implemented MPPT strategies under USC and PSC. (a) tracking time; (b) tracking accuracy.
2, Case 3 and Case 4 are 765.1 W, 516.1 W and 373.3 W from
Fig. 5, the tracking time, precision as well as stability of each
MPPT controller can be reflected from Figs. 9–11. Accordingly, it
just takes 0.15s, 0.13s and 0.15s for the adopted two-stage MPPT
controller to reach the GMPP while the other three counterparts
spend 0.16s–0.28s approximately. In addition, almost all the re-
sponse curves based on the proposed approach are final stable at
the nearest value to the GMPP with small oscillation after a short
time period of adjustment. Meanwhile, the intuitive oscillations
caused by the ICPSO are not conducive to the improvement of
generation efficiency for the system, and even accelerate the wear
of PV modules in the long run. Thus, the two-stage MPPT strategy
stands out among all the selected peer algorithms from tenable
advantages in tracking accuracy and rapidity.
Since the tracking time just can judge the convergence speed
of MPPT, it is significant to further indicate the advantages of pre-
sented controller in tracking precision. Under this circumstance,
the tracking accuracy of MPPT controller η is considered and
defined as Eq. (15).
Ppv
η= × 100%
PGMPP
where Ppv is the stable value of power output of PV system under
MPPT control, PGMPP is the theoretical GMPP of the given PV array
under a certain shading condition.
Therefore, on account of a more significant and credible con-
trast, the tracking accuracy of MPPT controllers can be obtained
along with their corresponding tracking time ts , actual maximum
power Ppv , and theoretical maximum power PGMPP under different
shading conditions, and the organized results are listed in Table 3.
To further demonstrate the excellent advantages of the proposed
ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx
Voc (V) Isc (A) Vmp (V) Imp (A)
21.6 8.57 17.6 7.95
C (µF) L (mH) Rload () fs (kHz)
470 10 10 10
method, the GWO based MPPT and SHTS based MPPT are also in-
cluded here. Furthermore, aiming at highly intuitive comparison
results, the bar charts inspired by the data in Table 3 are shown
as Fig. 12.
The 3D and 2D bar charts in Fig. 12(a) and Fig. 12(b) represent
the intuitive comparison of the tracking time ts and tracking
accuracy η for all the comparison approaches under unchanged
shading conditions including the USC and PSC. Apart from the
inevitable power loss in photovoltaic systems, the quantitative
contrast illustrated in Table 3 and Fig. 12 demonstrates the higher
tracking speed and accuracy of the presented MPPT compared
with all the counterparts. Besides, there is less power oscilla-
tion of the PV system under control of the adopted two-stage
MPPT method which demonstrates its remarkable competences
in GMPP tracking.
4.2. Simulation results under changed shading conditions
Considering it is easy for MPPT controllers to display lower
performance when the PV system undergoes changed solar irra-
(15) diation conditions, the simulation experiments in this part refer
to the suddenly changed shading conditions based on the solar
irradiances illustrated in Fig. 4. The parameters here are selected
the same as previous parts.
At the beginning of simulation process in this part, the PV
system is under shading condition of Case 1. Then, the shading
condition is changed to Case 4 and Case 3 at 1.2s and 2.4s in
sequence. The corresponding irradiance variation of each module
in the arranged PV array is depicted as Fig. 13.
The simulation results of the aforementioned process are ex-
hibited in Fig. 14. Since the output power of PV system is the most
12
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 3
Performance comparison of the proposed MPPT controller with other three different MPPT strategies under different
shading conditions.
Algorithm PGMPP (W) Ppv (W) ts (s) η (%)
ICPSO MPPT 1145.0 1126.0 0.22 98.34
GWO MPPT 1145.0 1066.3 0.20 93.12
P&O+ABC MPPT 1145.0 958.2 0.18 83.69
USC (Case 1)
IABC MPPT 1145.0 1126.3 0.23 98.37
SHTS MPPT 1145.0 1128.1 0.17 98.52
IABC+SHTS MPPT 1145.0 1130.1 0.15 98.70
ICPSO MPPT 765.1 747.5 0.19 97.70
GWO MPPT 765.1 747.9 0.21 97.75
P&O+ABC MPPT 765.1 747.9 0.28 97.75
PSC (Case 2)
IABC MPPT 765.1 735.6 0.25 96.14
SHTS MPPT 765.1 745.6 0.18 97.45
IABC+SHTS MPPT 765.1 750.2 0.15 98.05
ICPSO MPPT 516.1 508.6 0.17 98.55
GWO MPPT 516.1 452.0 0.15 87.58
P&O+ABC MPPT 516.1 498.3 0.21 96.55
PSC (Case 3)
IABC MPPT 516.1 500.6 0.23 97.00
SHTS MPPT 516.1 506.7 0.15 98.18
IABC+SHTS MPPT 516.1 513.8 0.13 99.55
ICPSO MPPT 373.3 365.2 0.21 97.83
GWO MPPT 373.3 366.5 0.19 98.18
P&O+ABC MPPT 373.3 368.2 0.22 98.63
USC (Case 4)
IABC MPPT 373.3 367.0 0.16 98.31
SHTS MPPT 373.3 367.3 0.17 98.39
IABC+SHTS MPPT 373.3 368.2 0.15 98.63

Fig. 13. Solar irradiance variation of each module in the PV array under suddenly changed shading conditions.

Fig. 14. Power responses of PV system controlled by different MPPT algorithms under suddenly changed shading conditions.

13
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang ISA Transactions xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 4
Performance comparison of the proposed MPPT controller with other three different MPPT strategies under suddenly
changed shading conditions.
Algorithm PGMPP (W) Ppv (W) ts (s) η (%)
ICPSO MPPT 1145 1130.1 0.33 98.70
GWO MPPT 1145 1124.9 0.17 98.24
P&O+ABC MPPT 1145 1126.5 0.17 98.38
USC (Case 1)
IABC MPPT 1145 1128.0 0.24 98.52
SHTS MPPT 1145 1128.0 0.18 98.52
IABC+SHTS MPPT 1145 1133.8 0.15 99.02
ICPSO MPPT 373.3 367.2 0.18 98.37
GWO MPPT 373.3 360.5 0.07 96.57
P&O+ABC MPPT 373.3 359.3 0.21 96.25
PSC (Case 4)
IABC MPPT 373.3 367.9 0.20 98.55
SHTS MPPT 373.3 362.8 0.17 97.19
IABC+SHTS MPPT 373.3 368.5 0.16 98.71
ICPSO MPPT 516.1 506.9 0.43 98.22
GWO MPPT 516.1 489.9 0.20 94.92
P&O+ABC MPPT 516.1 505.2 0.55 97.89
PSC (Case 3)
IABC MPPT 516.1 489.3 0.21 94.81
SHTS MPPT 516.1 505.9 0.21 98.02
IABC+SHTS MPPT 516.1 510.6 0.16 98.93

Fig. 15. Performance comparison of the implemented MPPT strategies under changed shading conditions. (a) tracking time; (b) tracking accuracy.

representative variable for performance demonstration of MPPT
controller, only the power responses are exhibited here.
It can be verified from Fig. 14 that even under suddenly
changed shading conditions, the proposed approach also reveals
tenable advantages among all the peers form the shortest tracking
time and smallest stable error.
Similarly, the theoretical maximum power PGMPP , actual max-
imum power Ppv , tracking time ts , and tracking accuracy η of
control system with different MPPT methods are calculated and
shown in Table 4 and Fig. 15.
The items in Table 4 and Fig. 15 have illustrated the perfor-
mance variation of PV system under suddenly changed shading
conditions. The marked decline of the tracking accuracy is obvi-
ous when the shading condition changed from Case 1 to Case 4
and Case 3. This downtrend reveals that the existences of PSCs
cause negative effect to the tracking precision of GMPP. Fortu-
nately, compared with other three MPPT strategies, the tracking
accuracy of the proposed one always maintains an ideal level
in the whole process. Furthermore, it just takes 0.15s, 0.16s,
14
and 0.16s to reach the GMPP within a high precision under
Case 1, Case 4, and Case 3. These tracking times are signifi-
cantly smaller than ICPSO MPPT, P&O+ABC MPPT, and IABC MPPT.
Besides, it is worth mentioning that the power oscillation of
PV system controlled by the designed two-stage MPPT is also
smaller than others, especially the system under control of ICPSO
MPPT. Therefore, the satisfactory performance of the presented
MPPT algorithm has been demonstrated through the comparison
simulations above.
5. Conclusions
Aiming at faster and accurate GMPP tracking of PV system un-
der diverse shading conditions, a novel two-stage MPPT scheme
fuses the IABC and SHTS is put forward in this paper. The early
stage called fast positioning stage is responsible for localization
of rough search region around global peak within a short time
by IABC. The IABC is proposed for exerting the advantages and
compensating the shortcomings of canonical ABC. Thus, it reveals
L. Gong, G. Hou and C. Huang
wider search range, higher convergence speed and optimization
accuracy by modifying the original evolutionary mechanism and
simplifying the probability selection process. Moreover, once the
termination condition of early stage is satisfied, the SHTS is used
in precise tracking stage for exact search of GMPP in search area.
This two-stage MPPT controller is applied to the PV system under
different shading conditions, such as unchanged shading condi-
tions like USC, PSC, and changed shading condition. Besides, from
the perspective of convergence speed and tracking accuracy, this
two-stage MPPT has won the first place among all the comparison
algorithms, namely the fast and hybrid MPPT methods based
on ICPSO, P&O+ABC, and IABC. Specifically, under all the tested
shading conditions, the tracking time of GMPP for the proposed
method are not higher than 0.16s, which are at least 6.67% faster
than other peer algorithms. Even in some cases, the ratio is as
high as 160%. Moreover, in spite of the differences between shad-
ing conditions, all the tracking accuracy of the two-stage MPPT
are exceed 98% even up to 99.55%. On the contrary, the lowest
tracking accuracy of its counterparts is less than 85%, which
reveals certain probabilities to fall into local optimum. Thus, the
adopted two-stage MPPT approach is alluring in avoiding local
optimum and ensuring GMPP tracking performance. However,
there are also ineluctable shortcomings in the research of this
paper. Firstly, as a combination of two different optimization
algorithms, the structure of proposed MPPT controller is rela-
tively complex. Secondly, enough attention should be paid to
the transition process of two stages in the presented MPPT for
satisfactory optimization results. Thirdly, practical experiments
are not implemented in current work from insufficient hard-
ware facilities. Therefore, in the future work, some efforts will
be made to reduce the complexity of this two-stage MPPT, and
the universality of proposed MPPT will be verified under more
and more common and special occlusion conditions of PV array.
Furthermore, adequate preparation will be made for practical
application, and extensive experimental test will be implemented
as long as the conditions are met.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (Grant No. 61973112). The reviewers’ insightful
comments and valuable suggestions are also greatly appreciated.
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