Evolutionary and metaphor-metaheuristic mppt techniques for enhancing the operation of solar pv under partial shading condition

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are the most popular electric power generation systems for domestic as well as industrial applications because of its sustainability and excess availability in nature. Under Partial Shading Condition (PSC), the nonlinear characteristics of solar PV consist of multiple local Maximum Power Points (MPPs) and one global MPP. Hence, it is difficult to operate the operating point of the solar PV closer to true MPP. There are different tracking methods available for MPP Tracking in the literature. The classical Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) methods are not suitable under partial shading conditions because the operating point of PV may settle down to any one of the local MPP. Also, these methods failed to mitigate the oscillations across the operating point of solar PV. The recently developed evolutionary based MPPT techniques are becoming more prominent in order to avoid the drawbacks of classical MPP techniques. In this article, different types of MPPT techniques such as evolutionary, metaphor-metaheuristic and hybrid MPPT techniques are discussed in detail along with their advantages and disadvantages. The comparative analysis is carried out by considering the parameters such as tracking speed, oscillation across MPP, settling time, implementation complexity and efficiency.