Design and Hardware Implementation of Modified Incremental Conductance Algorithm for Photovoltaic System

Abstract

This paper deals with the design, simulation and real-time implementation of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique for a Photovoltaic (PV) system. A new modified Incremental Conductance (INC) algorithm is proposed to extract maximum power from PV panels at different levels of temperature and solar irradiation. The considered PV system consists of a PV panel, a DC-DC boost converter controlled by MPPT algorithm and a resistive load. First, the simulation tests of the proposed algorithm using Matlab/Simulink environment are presented, and then, followed by a real-time implementation using Arduino Mega board and a specific package known as ``Simulink support package for arduino hardware'' to validate experimentally the~simulation tests. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed modified INC algorithm offers much less oscillation around the Maximum Power Point (MPP), fast dynamic response and better performances compared to the conventional INC algorithm.