Experimental validation of synergetic approach based MPPT controller for an autonomous PV system

Abstract

A novel nonlinear maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller for autonomous photovoltaic systems based on synergetic control theory is presented in this paper as a solution to eliminate the chattering drawback provided by sliding mode controller, where the proposed strategy allows to generate continuous control law instead of a switching term. A DC/DC boost converter is introduced in the content of this work as an interface between a photovoltaic array and a resistive load. The developed MPPT controller was tested both in simulations using Matlab/Simulink tool and experimentally using dSPACE RTI 1104 real-time platform and compared with the sliding mode-based MPPT controller. Furthermore, the EN 50530 standard test with different ramp gradients values is used to calculate the MPPT efficiency under irradiance changes from the slow to the very fast. Illustrative results that prove the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed MPPT controller even the non-uniform conditions (temperatures and solar irradiances) are presented here. The fast response and the accurate tracking to the maximum power point (MPP) with considerable reduction in the oscillations are successfully reached with the developed controller which is much better than sliding mode controller.