MPPT of PV System under Partial Shading Conditions by Novel Control with Modified Grey Wolf Optimization Technique

Abstract

Solar energy is a primary source on earth and photovoltaic (PV) cells are using to produce electricity through solar energy. Due to nonlinear behavior of power vs voltage curves of PV system, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuits must be employed to harvest maximum energy. Among many MPPT techniques, a Perturbed and Observed (P&O) algorithm is one of the best methods. Generally partial shading conditions (PSCs) are commonly appearing on the PV systems. Under these PSCs, the P-V curve exhibits multiple peaks where one can be a global maximum and other are local maximum points. The global maximum location needs to be identifying to harvest more energy during PSCs. Hence, modified grey wolf optimization method is integrated with P&O algorithm to make a hybrid control method of a boost converter to operate PV system at its best utilization point. Hardware – in the – Loop (HIL) is designed with the help of two OPAL-RT modules to present various results under different operating conditions.