Enhancing Performance of Solar Photovoltaic Drip Irrigation System Through Binary Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

This paper presents a multisector drip irrigation system (DIS) powered by solar photovoltaic (PV). A binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) method possibly determines irrigation in multisector, depending on the power availability of the solar PV. The power from solar PV in this study was optimized through maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using an incremental conductance (INC) method. A prototype was built using a PV emulator in 10 controlled irrigation sectors. Three operating modes applied include control of all sectors with BPSO, partly sectors with a combination of linear programming, and all sectors with bypassed without BPSO. Simulations and tests showed very similar results, indicating that the BPSO method provides an optimal and accurate irrigation system with 0.7 psi of an average irrigation operating pressure (IOP) error, 4.01 % of water volume error, and 96.55 % of the uniformity coefficient of water volume.