Functional Study of A Distributed MPPT Power Management System

Abstract

This paper presents the concept of a control strategy for Solar Array (SA) power regulation using an independent Maximum Power Point Tracking system for each Solar Array section in order to maximize the power extracted from every SA sections. Moreover, it allows to distribute the battery charge current between the power sources in order to evenly divide the switching losses on the power semiconductors of the converters and, thus, extending their life time and to reduce the dissipation power. The proposed strategy can be applied to the Power Control Unit designed for satellites with unregulated power bus architecture. Significant simulation results, obtained using a Matlab/Simulink model, demonstrates the validity of the proposed approach.