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Simulation of Fuzzy Logic Control Based MPPT Technique for Photovoltaic

System

Conference Paper · September 2014

DOI: 10.15242/IIE.E0914026

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 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICCET’2014) Sept. 19-20, 2014 Penang (Malaysia)

Simulation of Fuzzy Logic Control Based

MPPT Technique for Photovoltaic System
Saravana selvan.D, Mohammed feros khan.J, Umayal.V, and Indumathi.M

 are in practice and the comparison of most of the MPPT

Abstract—Maximum power point techniques (MPPT) are techniques with respect to the amount of energy extracted from
employed in photovoltaic systems to make full utilization of PV array the PV panel have been proposed in the literature [2-3]. The
output power. The output power of PV arrays is always changing most popular MPPT algorithms are Perturb and Observe
with weather conditions i.e, solar irradiation and atmospheric (P&O) and Incremental conductance (IC) algorithm.
temperature. In this paper, a fuzzy Logic control (FLC) based MPPT The author [4-5] compares and evaluates the percentage of
technique is proposed to improve the efficiency of a standalone solar power extraction with MPPT and without MPPT. It clearly
energy system. Using a fuzzy logic controller is an intelligent way of shows that when we use MPPT with the PV system, the power
tracking the maximum power point (MPP). The performance of the extraction efficiency is increase to 97%. Different kinds of
proposed method has been simulated in Matlab/Simulink at different MPPTs have been introduced and developed. Fuzzy logic is
solar irradiation and temperature. one of the suitable methods to find the maximum power point
(MPP) of a solar panel which has good stability and high
Keywords— PV Array, MPPT, Fuzzy Logic, Simulink. response rate. Nowadays, fuzzy based MPPT [6-7] research
works have been published more since it has better
I. INTRODUCTION performance, accuracy and stable. The author [8-9] proposes a
fuzzy-based MPPT to enhance the efficiency and robustness of
A FTER the energy crisis and environmental issues such as
global warming and pollution, a great attention has been
achieved by the solar photo voltaic (PV) systems in
the solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation and establishes a
dynamic model of grid-connected PV system by
Matlab/Simulink environment. Simulation results show that the
research. Currently more research works has been focused on
system with fuzzy-based MPPT increases the efficiency of
how to extract more power effectively from the PV cells to
energy production. Reference [10] a new fuzzy-based
increase the efficiency of the solar photo voltaic systems. The
algorithm was proposed to track maximum power point of the
main drawback of the solar PV systems is the variation in
solar panel, and it was compared with the incremental
output voltage with the changes in solar irradiation and
conductance and perturbation and observation methods from
temperature. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is a
speed tracking point of view. The results showed that the
process which tracks one maximum power point (MPP) from
proposed fuzzy controller tracks the MPP within 0.57 s, while
photo voltaic (PV) array input. The main challenge by MPPT
it was 1.92 s and 4.36 s for both mentioned algorithms,
techniques is to automatically find the voltage VMPP or current
respectively. In this paper reviews the basic characteristics of
IMPP at which a PV array should operate to obtain the
the PV cell and the simulation model of the circuit with the
maximum power output PMPP under a given temperature and
help of Matlab/Simulink software. In addition, a highly robust
irradiance. It is noted that under partial shading conditions, the
fuzzy logic based controller is designed along with the DC-DC
P-V characteristics of the PV array get more complex and bear
buck boost converter in Matlab/Simulink software, to increase
multiple peaks [1]. There are lot of MPPT tracking techniques
the efficiency of the solar PV system. The output of the fuzzy
logic controller is the change in the duty cycle of the DC-DC
Saravan selvan.D is with the Asian Institute of Medical Science and buck boost converter.
Technology (AIMST), Faculty of Engineering and Computer Technology,
Semeling, Bedong -08100, Kedah. Malaysia. (phone:+60103896500 II. MODELING OF PV SYSTEM
; e-mail: [email protected]).
Mohammed feros khan.J is with Vickram College of Engineering, A solar PV cell is basically a p-n junction fabricated in a
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, affiliated to Anna thin wafer of semiconductor. The electromagnetic radiation of
University, Chennai -6000025, Tamilnadu, India. (e-mail:
solar energy can be directly converted to electricity through
[email protected]).
Umayal.V was working with Pandian Saraswathi Yadav Engineering photovoltaic effect. Being exposed to the sunlight, photons
College, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, affiliated to with energy greater then the band-gap energy of the
Anna University, Chennai -6000025, Tamilnadu, India. (e-mail: semiconductor creates some electron-hole pairs proportional to
[email protected]). the incident irradiation. To achieve higher voltage and current,
Indumathi.M was working with Vickram College of Engineering,
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, affiliated to Anna multiple cells are used as needed. The PV cell can be
University, Chennai -6000025, Tamilnadu, India. represented by a simple equivalent circuit shown in figure 1.
The series resistance Rs represents the internal losses due to

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0914026 10
 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICCET’2014) Sept. 19-20, 2014 Penang (Malaysia)

the current flow, whereas the shunt resistance Rsh corresponds

to the leakage current to the ground and it is normally ignored.

Fig.1 Equivalent circuit of PV cell Fig.3 PV-IV curves of Solar Cell

The output current is a function of solar radiation, For any PV system, the output power can be increased by
temperature, wind speed and coefficients that are particular to tracking the MPP (Maximum Power Point) of the PV module
the cell technology. The authors [11-12] present a detailed by using a controller connected to a dc- dc converter (usually
analysis of solar cell and its electrical equivalent model is boost converter). However, the MPP changes with insolation
created in Matlab /Simulink. The simulink model of the solar level and temperature due to the nonlinear characteristic of PV
cell is shown in the figure 2. The net current of the PV cell is modules. Each type of PV module has its own specific
the difference between the photocurrent Iph and the normal characteristic. In general, there is a single point on the V-I or
diode current ID. V-P curve, called the Maximum Power Point (MPP), at which
the entire PV system operates with maximum efficiency and
 eV  IRs   produces its maximum output power. This point can be located
I  I ph  I D  I ph  I o  exp  1 with the help of MPPT (Maximum Power Point Trackers). PV
 mkT c  system with MPPT controller has been shown in figure 4.
where:
m - idealizing factor
k - Boltzmann’s gas constant
Tc -the absolute temperature of the cell
e- electronic charge
V-the voltage impose across the cell
Io -the dark saturation current

Fig .4 Block diagram

III. FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER

The Fuzzy logic controller uses the fuzzy logics to make the
decisions and to control the output of the controller. The main
components in fuzzy logic based MPPT controller are
fuzzification, rule-base, inference and defuzzification as shown
Fig. 2 Simulink Model of Solar PV Cell in figure 5.

PV modules have unique current v/s voltage (I-V)

characteristics. From the P-V and I-V characteristics, as shown
in figure 3, it is clear that the PV systems must be operated at a
maximum power point (MPP) of specific current and voltage
values so as to increase the PV efficiency. The voltage that
corresponds to the module maximum power varies with
Fig. 5 Fuzzy logic block diagram
temperature and insolation variations, so a MPP tracking
system is needed to ensure that we stay as close as possible to
There are two inputs to the controller – error e(k) and
the maximum power point. change in error Δe(k). The Fuzzification block converts the
crisp inputs to fuzzy inputs. The rules are formed in rule base
and are applied in inference block. The defuzzification
converts the fuzzy output to the crisp output. The fuzzy

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0914026 11
 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICCET’2014) Sept. 19-20, 2014 Penang (Malaysia)

inference is carried out by using Mamdani’s method, and the

defuzzification uses the centre of gravity to compute the output
of this FLC which is the change in duty cycle.
The inputs to the Fuzzy controller are change in PV array
Power (ΔPPV) and change in PV array current (ΔIPV)
corresponding to the two sampling time instants. The two
inputs are processed by the Fuzzy controller and the output of
the Fuzzy controller is the incremental reference current
(ΔIref). This output is given to the Dc-Dc power converter. The
first input variable (ΔPpv) for the fuzzy logic controller is
divided into seven Fuzzy sets: PB (Positive Big), PM (Positive
Medium), PS (Positive Small), ZZ (Zero), NS (Negative
Fig. 8 Membership functions of ―change in Reference
Small), NM (Negative Medium) and NB (Negative Big). The
current‖ output
second input variable (ΔIpv) for the fuzzy logic controller is
divided into 3 Fuzzy sets: N (Negative), Z (Zero) and P IV. PROPOSED MODEL
(Positive). The only one output variable (ΔIref) is divided into
The proposed Fuzzy Logic Control based MPPT has been
7 Fuzzy sets: PB (Positive Big), PM (Positive Medium), PS
modeled as shown in the figure 9. The specification of the PV
(Positive Small), ZZ (Zero), NB (Negative Big), NM
module used in this simulation is tabulated in table 2.
(Negative Medium) and NS (Negative Small). The rules are
formed as shown in table 1.
TABLE.I
RULE BASE
PB PM PS ZZ NS NM NB
ΔPpv
ΔIpv
P PB PM PS PS NS NM NB
Z PB PM PS ZZ NS NM NB
N NB NM NS NS PS PM PB

The input, output membership functions are shown in

figures 6, 7 & 8 respectively. Fig.9 Proposed fuzzy logic control based MPPT

TABLE.II
PV- MODULE SPECIFICATIONS
Short Circuit Current 13.5 A
Open Circuit Voltage 48 V
Current at Pmax 11.2 A
Voltage at Pmax 35.6 V

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig.10 and Fig.11 shows the results of t he fuzzy logic
Fig. 6 Membership functions of ―change in Power‖ input
controller PWM output and the output power of the PV
Module with the varying of irradiation. The fig.11 shows the
performance of the PV system using Fuzzy logic controller
under fast changing of irradiance. The irradiance values are
500, 800, 1000 and 1300 W/m2 respectively. It is clear that
energy gained by the proposed technique is giving better
efficiency compare to the conventional technique.

Fig. 7 Membership functions of ―change in current‖ input

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0914026 12
 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICCET’2014) Sept. 19-20, 2014 Penang (Malaysia)

[5] Hussein KH, et al. ―Maximum photovoltaic power tracking: an

algorithm for rapidly changing atmospheric conditions‖ IEEE
Proceedings on Generation, Transmission and Distribution 1995;
142:59–64.
[6] Pongsakor Takun, Somyot Kaitwanidvilai and Chaiyan Jettanasen,
―Maximum Power Point Tracking using Fuzzy Logic Control for
Photovoltaic Systems‖ Proceedings of the International
Multiconference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2011, Vol 2,
IMECS March 2011. ISSN: 2078-0966.
[7] Juan Luis Agorreta, Luis Reinaldos, Roberto González, ―Fuzzy
Switching Technique Applied to PWM Boost Converter Operating in
Mixed Conduction Mode for PV Systems ― IEEE Transactions On
Industrial Electronics, Vol. 56, No. 11, November 2009.
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[8] Bader N. Alajmi, Khaled H. Ahmed, Stephen J. Finney, and Barry W.
Fig. 10 Proposed fuzzy logic control PWM output Williams, ―Fuzzy-Logic-Control Approach of a Modified Hill-Climbing
Method for Maximum Power Point in Microgrid Standalone
Photovoltaic System‖ IEEE Transactions On Power Electronics, Vol.
26, No. 4, April 2011.
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[9] Prince Jose, Priya Rani Jose, ―Grid Connected Photovoltaic System with
Fuzzy Logic Control Based MPPT‖ International Journal of
Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Vol 3, Issue 8,
February 2014 ISSN: 2277-3754.
[10] Ali Kargarnejad, Mohsen Taherbaneh and Amir Hosein Kashefi, ―A
New Fuzzy-Based Maximum Power Point Tracker for a Solar Panel
Based on Datasheet Values‖ Hindawi Publishing Corporation
International Journal of Photoenergy Vol 2013, Research Article ID
960510
[11] ―Photovoltaic Modeling‖ Power Analytics Corporation 16870 West
Bernardo Drive, Suite 330 San Diego, CA 92127, U.S.A.
[12] N.Pandiarajan and Ranganath Muthu, ―Mathematical Modeling of
Photovoltaic Module with Simulink‖ International Conference on
Fig.11 Output Power at different irradiations Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a simulink model of fuzzy logic control based
Saravana selvan. D received B.E. in Electrical &
maximum power point tracker (MPPT) has been done. The Electronics Engineering from Manonmaniam
entire PV system was simulated based on the fuzzy logic Sundaranar University, Tamilnadu, India in 2002. He
MPPT algorithm and the simulation results were verified. It is received M.E. in Embedded System Technologies
from Anna University, Chennai, India in 2008. He is
clear that the PV system becomes more efficient when a MPPT currently working as a lecturer in Aimst University,
controller with fuzzy logic is included in the system. By kedah, Malaysia. His research interests are Renewable
selecting the number of membership functions, it has been Energy, Embedded Systems and Power Converters.
proved that MPPT will follow the exact MPP point and
thereby the overall efficiency of the photo voltaic system can Mohammed feros khan. J received B.E. in Electrical
be improved. In the future, the designed model can be & Electronics Engineeirng and M.E. in Power
implemented in hardware using PIC microcontrollers. Electronics & Drives from Anna University, Chennai,
India in 2005 and 2007 respectively. He is currently
working as a Asst. prof. in Vickram College of
REFERENCES Engineering, Enathi, Tamilnadu, India. His research
[1] Hiren Patel and Vivek Agarwal, ―Maximum Power Point Tracking interests are Power Electronics, Renewable Energy and
Scheme for PV Systems Operating Under Partially Shaded Conditions‖ Power Converters.
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 55, No. 4, April
2008.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2008.917118 Umayal.V received B.E in Computer Science
[2] Moacyr Aureliano Gomes de Brito, Luigi Galotto, Jr., Leonardo Engineering from Anna University Chennai, India in
Poltronieri Sampaio, Guilherme de Azevedo e Melo, and Carlos Alberto 2005. He received M.E in Embedded System
Canesin, ―Evaluation of the Main MPPT Techniques for Photovoltaic Technologies from Anna University, Chennai, India in
Applications‖ IEEE Transactions On Industrial Electronics, Vol. 60, 2008. Her research interests are Renewable Energy,
No. 3, March 2013. VLSI Design, Embedded System Design, Cloud
[3] Trishan Esram and Patrick L. Chapman, ―Comparison of Photovoltaic computing and Cryptography.
Array Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques‖ IEEE Transactions
On Energy Conversion, Vol. 22, No. 2, June 2007.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2006.874230
[4] Hohm D, Ropp M. ―Comparative study of maximum power point
tracking algorithms. Progress in photovoltaics‖ Research and
Applications 2003; 11: 47–62.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pip.459

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0914026 13
 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICCET’2014) Sept. 19-20, 2014 Penang (Malaysia)

Indumathi.M received B.E in Electronics &

Communication Engineering from Anna University
Chennai, India in 2007. He received M.E in
Applied Electronics from Anna University Chennai,
India in 2012. Her research interests are Renewable
Energy, Image Processing, VLSI Design and
VHDL-AMS modeling.

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