A Maximum Power Point Tracker with Automatic Step Size Tuning Scheme for Photovoltaic Systems

The purpose of this paper is to study on a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for photovoltaic (PV) systems. First, the simulation environment for PV systems is constructed by using PSIM software package. A 516W PV system established with Kyocera KC40T photovoltaic modules is used as an example to finish the simulation of the proposed MPPT method. When using incremental conductance (INC) MPPT method, it usually should consider the tradeoff between the dynamic response and the steady-state oscillation, whereas the proposed modified incremental conductance method based on extension theory can automatically adjust the step size to track the maximum power point (MPP) of PV array and effectively improve the dynamic response and steady-state performance of the PV systems, simultaneously. Some simulation and experimental results are made to verify that the proposed extension maximum power point tracking method can provide a good dynamic response and steady-state performance for a photovoltaic power generation system.