INDIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Implementation of Modified
Incremental Conductance MPPT A
lgorithm in Grid Connected PV System
Under Dynamic Climatic Conditions
OPEN ACCESS

N V Uma Maheswari1 ∗ , L Jessi Sahaya Shanthi2

Received: 11.02.2022
Accepted: 22.03.2022
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Government
Published: 19.05.2022
College of Engineering, Bodinayakkanur, 625582, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Thiagarajar
College of Engineering, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Citation: Maheswari NVU,

Shanthi LJS (2022) Implementation
of Modified Incremental Abstract
Conductance MPPT A lgorithm in
Grid Connected PV System Under Background: The main goal of the grid-connected Photo Voltaic (PV) system
Dynamic Climatic Conditions. Indian is to extract maximum power from the array with reduced loss by using an
Journal of Science and Technology
appropriate MPPT method. Methods: A boost converter topology with linear
15(17): 819-828. https://doi.org/
10.17485/IJST/v15i17.282 INCMPPT algorithm is used to provide maximum power of 100 kW from the
∗ solar PV array to the grid. The integral regulator in the modified algorithm
Corresponding author.
minimizes the error and guarantees exact control of the duty cycle of the DC-DC
[email protected]
converter to produce constant DC voltage 500V with a minimum error of ±2V.
Funding: None This proposed methodology perfectly matches with the optimal design of the
Competing Interests: None DC-AC converter (inverter) for grid integration. A three-level IGBT-based voltage
Copyright: © 2022 Maheswari & source inverter and filters are designed to supply pure AC voltage to the existing
Shanthi. This is an open access 100 kW grid. Detailed simulation work is completed using MATLAB/ Simulink
article distributed under the terms
software to prove the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm under various
of the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits temperature (25-50◦ C) and irradiance (200-1000W/m2 ) levels. Findings: The
unrestricted use, distribution, and proposed MPPT algorithm is simple and effective in reducing the error required
reproduction in any medium,
for the duty cycle correction from 0.45 to 0.518 and eliminating the oscillations
provided the original author and
source are credited. at MPP. By using this methodology, the output voltage of the boost converter is
adjusted to match the reference value. The simulation results reveal the better
Published By Indian Society for
Education and Environment (iSee) performance of the grid-connected PV system with the modified incremental
conductance MPPT method. This modified INC MPPT algorithm exactly controls
ISSN
Print: 0974-6846 the duty cycle of the boost converter to provide better settling time and low
Electronic: 0974-5645 ripples in the grid parameters. Novelty: This article provides a simple and
effective improved incremental conductance (INC) MPPT algorithm to minimize
the tracking error (1.5%). No additional tuning and selection of parameters,
computational burden and memory are required for the implementation of
the proposed control algorithm.
Keywords: Gridconnected photovoltaic (PV) system; Maximum power point
tracking (MPPT); Voltage Source Inverter (VSI); Boost converter; Incremental
conductance (INC)

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1 Introduction
For low power applications, stand-alone PV systems are used which require a battery to store solar energy. Grid-connected PV
system does not require battery storage and it is used in high power applications. In this system, PV array, DC-DC converter
with MPPT and DC-AC converter are required to integrate PV with the grid. The maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
is a technique used to harness maximum power from the solar PV system under severe climatic conditions (1–8) . Several
MPPT algorithms like perturb and observe (P&O), fractional short-circuit current (FSCC), artificial neural networks (ANN),
incremental conductance (INC), fractional open-circuit voltage (FOCV), fuzzy logic (FL), and particle swarm optimization
(PSO) are identified from literature (1–14) . Fuzzy logic (14) and ANN (10,15) are widely used in motor control applications as well
as in MPPT algorithms. These algorithms are ranging simple to more complex. Tracking speed, hardware requirement and cost
are different for each algorithm. All the algorithms are developed to track MPP under varying irradiance and temperature.
In recent years, ANN-based MPPT is widely used industrial applications because it does not require complex mathematical
equations. The P&O and the INC MPPT methods are used mostly because of their easy implementation and tracking speed.
But P&O MPPT produces oscillations at MPP (12,13) .The main objective of the grid-connected PV system is to extract the
maximum possible solar energy and exporting to the existing grid under rapidly changing climatic conditions so that power loss,
maintenance and operational cost of the grid are minimized. The main task is to control and maintain the power factor of the
inverter and the quality of the power. The power flow between PV array and grid is also controlled in this scheme. A novel INC
MPPT with an integrator is used in this work to reduce the oscillations and tracking error. ANN is used for obtaining the global
MPPT in a standalone PV system under varying climatic conditions (1) . A variable step incremental conductance algorithm
with a fuzzy logic controller is used in the grid connected PV system. An increase in the step size minimizes the accuracy and a
decrease in step size improves the tracking accuracy. The performance of the MPPT method is analyzed during snow conditions
with computational intelligence (2,3) . The effect of membership functions on the performance of the PV system is detailed (4) . A
comparison between hybrid, intelligent and classical MPPT methods is presented (5) . Local maxima occurrences, oscillations at
MPP and less efficiency are the limitations of classical MPPT methods. A buck converter is used for charge controller used in
the stand-alone PV system (6). The converter in the PV system reduces the voltage level for storage in the battery. Algorithms like
self-tuned P&O (11) ANFIS-PSO (12) and momentum based P&O (13) are discussed for the specified applications in the literature.
In the momentum based P&O method, the selection of scaling factor decides the performance of MPPT. Oscillation at MPP
occurs when the momentum factor is greater than 0.5. However, the global maximum is not guaranteed for the entire simulation
and P& O algorithms are comparatively slower than the INC algorithm (12) . For the implementation of ANN and ANFIS based
MPPT methods, the previous and present data set is needed for the training and testing phases of the network and the collection
of such data is a tedious process (1,10,12,15) . Training data are obtained either from simulation or from experimentation. Human
expertise is required for the rule formation in the fuzzy system and the selection of membership function greatly affects the
performance of the MPPT method (4,14) . The proposed MPPT does not require any such large dataset and human expertise and
it is simple and efficient to implement in the Simulink environment. Unlike P&O MPPT, oscillations at MPP are eliminated in
the proposed MPPT (11,13) . The integral regulator is used to minimize the error required to control the duty cycle variation in
accordance with the irradiance so that the overall efficiency is improved. Continuous control of power flow is achieved with
this modified algorithm.

2 Methodology
2.1 Mathematical Modeling of PV Array
The series connection in the PV array is responsible for increasing the voltage and the parallel connection is used for increasing
the current rating of the system. Power generated by the PV system depends on solar irradiance and cell temperature (1–13) . The
sunlight is directly converted into electrical energy by the photovoltaic cell. The typical equivalent circuit model of a PV cell is
shown in Figure 1. The PV current (IL ) is the sum of diode current (ID ), shunt resistor current (Ish ), and output current (I).

Fig 1. PV cell - Equivalent circuit

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The output current of the PV cell is expressed as

I = IL − ID − I sh (1)

 
q (V + IRs )
(V + IRs )
I = IL − Is e mkT − 1 − (2)
Rsh

Where
I - Output current (A),
IL - Light generated PV current (A),
Is - Saturation current (A),
ID - Diode current (A),
Ish - Shunt current (A),
q - Electron charge (1.6×10−19 C),
Rs - Series resistance (Ω),
Rsh - Shunt resistance (Ω),
m - Diode quality factor,
k - Boltzmann constant (1.38×10−23 J/K) and
T - Temperature (K).
The maximum current and power are expressed as
 ( ) 
q Vmp + Imp Rs ( )
  Vmp + Imp Rs
Imp = IL − Is e mkT − 1 − (3)
Rsh

  ( )  
q Vmp + Imp Rs ( )
   Vmp + Imp Rs 
Pmp = Vmp IL − Is e mkT − 1 − (4)
Rsh 


At constant temperature, when the irradiance level is increased to 500 W/m2 , 800 W/m2 , and 1000 W/m2 , the PV voltage and
current increase, and hence PV power also increase with irradiance as given in Figure 2. At constant irradiance, an increase
in cell temperatures like 250 C, 350 C, and 500 C reduce the PV power. The MPPT algorithm maintains the PV operating point
close to the MPP. To track the maximum power point under the variable conditions of solar irradiations, accurate control of
the duty cycle of the boost converter is required.

Fig 2. I-V and P-V Characteristics at different temperatures and irradiances

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3 Incremental Conductance MPPT Algorithm

Fig 3. P-V characteristics of PV array

The typical P-V Characteristics curve of a PV array is shown in Figure 3. The PV power is maximum at the point MPP. In this
paper, the modified INC MPPT algorithm is used for the grid-connected system. In the conventional INC MPPT control, dP/dV
should be zero for getting MPPT. This dP/dV ratio is positive for the left side of the MPP and is negative for the right side of
MMP. The MPP is identified based on the comparison of array conductance (I/V) with incremental conductance (∆I/∆V). When
these are equal (∆I/∆V=I/V), the output voltage is the MPP voltage (2) . This algorithm uses voltage and current measurements
of the PV array. The flowchart of this algorithm is depicted in Figure 4. Equations related to this algorithm are given as follows

△P △(V I) I△V V △I
= = + (5)
△V △V △V △V

△P V △I
=I+ (6)
△V △V

( ) ( )
I △P I △I
= + (7)
V △V V △V
△P
= 0 at MPP (8)
△V
△P
> 0, Left of MPP (9)
△V
△P
< 0, Right of MPP (10)
△V
△I I
= − , at MPP (11)
△V V
△I I
> − , Le f t o f MPP (12)
△V V
△I I
< − , Right of MPP (13)
△V V

Where ∆P is the output power deviation, ∆V is the output voltage deviation of PV module and ∆I is the change in PV current.

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Fig 4. Incremental conductance MPPT Flowchart

3.1 Proposed MPPT Algorithm

In the proposed algorithm as given in Figure 5, the integral regulator used in the modified MPPT method minimizes the error
( I ) △I
V + △V and the regulator output is used for the duty cycle correction. Here integral gain of 10 is selected for simulation.
DC-DC PWM generator is used for the generation of pulse required for the boost converter switch.

Fig 5. Integral regulator in INC MPPT

4 Design of Boost Converter

Fig 6. Boost converter

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The boost converter (Figure 6) consists of a diode, capacitor, inductor, and a switch. The ripple reduction filters are used in
both supply and load sides (13) . The average output voltage V0 is

Vi
(14)
1−D
Duty cycle D of the boost converter is expressed in terms of efficiency η .
( )
Vi
D = 1− η (15)
V0

The inductor value is calculated using the following expression

Vs(min) D
L≥ (16)
fs ∆iL

where fs - Switching Frequency

D -Duty Cycle
△iL - Ripple current (20–40% of iL ).
Capacitors present in the input and the output sides are calculated using equations (17) and (18).

I0m D2
Ci ≥ (17)
0.02 (1 − D)Vi fs

I0m D
Cou t ≥ (18)
fs ∆VC

5 Simulation Results and Discussion

The simulation model of the proposed system is developed using MATLAB/Simulink. This proposed algorithm is used to track
the MPP under dynamic climatic conditions and is given in Figure 7. Irradiance has a direct impact on PV output at constant
temperature. To analyze the system with the modified IC-MPPT, MATLAB simulation is carried out at different irradiance levels
(250-1000) W/m2 and different temperatures (25-50)0 C. The signal builder block in the Simulink is used to set the irradiance
and temperature profile. All the simulation results are discussed here to prove the effectiveness of the proposed MPPT.

Fig 7. Simulation diagram of grid connected PV system

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Fig 8. Proposed MPPT

Table 1. Simulation Parameters

Parameter Value
PV array Open circuit voltage (Voc) 64.2 V
Maximum voltage (Vm) 54.7 V
Short circuit current (Isc) 5.96 A
Maximum power (Pm) 305.2 W
Diode saturation current (Is) 1.1753e−08
Shunt Resistance (Rsh) 993.51 Ω
Maximum Power Current (Im) 5.58 A
Series Resistance (Rs) 0.0379 Ω
Boost Converter Inductance 5.5 mH
Input Capacitance 110 µ F
Output Capacitance 15 mF
Switching frequency 5kHz

Fig 9. Irradiance,Temperature profile, PV voltage and current

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Fig 10. Duty cycle, Boost converter output voltage and Grid power

Figure 8 shows the Simulink model of the proposed MPPT algorithm with integral regulator and simulation parameters are
listed in Table 1. Figure 9 shows the irradiance and temperature profile used for the simulation.
Initially the duty cycle (D) is set as 0.5 for the simulation. At time t=0.5 sec, irradiance level is decreased to 250 W/m2 from
the initial level of 1000 W/m2 at 250 C and the duty cycle is decreased to 0.45. At 1 sec, the duty cycle attains a maximum
value of 0.518 because of the sudden change in temperature and irradiance level. The boost converter voltage is maintained at a
constant 500V irrespective of the changes in the climatic conditions. Exact control of the duty cycle is ensured during the entire
simulation to get constant output voltage in the boost converter. The pure DC voltage of the boost converter is used as input to
the voltage source converter (VSC). It is a three-level DC- AC converter in which proper gating signals to the IGBT switches
are given to produce 500V AC at the output side. The grid power of 92.5 kW is obtained at 1000 W/ m2 , 450 C level and it is 25
kW at 250 W/ m2 , 250 C. After the ripple reduction using an LC filter, the alternating voltage is integrated with the existing grid
for customer use. Grid power of 100 kW and the corresponding duty cycle and boost converter voltage waveforms are shown
in Figure 10 with negligible variations. The entire simulation results are summarized in Table 2 and it is proved that PV power
(Ppv) is almost equal to the grid power with a 1.5% error. The superiority of the proposed method is shown in Table 3. With
minimum modification in the existing method, tracking error and oscillation at MPP are minimized. Computational burden
and memory requirement are less when compared with the other MPPT methods in the literature.

Table 2. Summary of results

Time Sec Irradiance W/m2 Temperature 0 C VPV V IPV A D Vboost V PPV kW Grid powerKw
0.5 250 25 280 100 0.45 499 28 25
1 900 25 250 320 0.51 502 80 79
1.5 1000 45 250 380 0.49 501 95 92.5
2 600 45 240 280 0.49 499.9 67.2 68
2.5 1000 50 240 385 0.5 500 92.4 91.5

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Table 3. Comparison of proposed method with other MPPT Algorithms

Proposed Momentum Fuzzy (4) ANN (10) ANFIS-PSO (12)
method based P&O (13)
Complexity Low Low Medium High High
Memory Medium Medium >Medium High Very high
requirement
Required sensors One voltage One voltage One voltage One voltage and One voltage and current
and current and current current
Tuning / selection No Momentum Membership Weights, inputs, Weights, inputs, neurons, no of
parameters factor(α ) functions neurons particles and iterations
Computational Low Low High High Very high
burden
Additional require- No Oscillations at Expertize in Data set, training Data set,training and testing of
ment/limitation MPP (α >0.5) rule base and testing of NN ANFIS

6 Conclusion
A modified INC MPPT with DC-DC converter topology is presented for grid connected PV 100 kW small customer and
residential applications. The integral regulator present in the modified INC MPPT algorithm is used to reduce the error for
duty cycle correction from 0.45 to 0.518 and the boost converter output is maintained at 500 V with negligible error (±2V).
This proposed methodology is exactly matched with the optimal design of VSC for grid integration. Simulation results reveal the
improvement in the system performance with temperature and solar irradiance variations. This modified INC MPPT reaches
MPP faster than other conventional methods like P&O that perturbs around MPP. The incremental conductance algorithm with
an integral regulator can track the MPP for the PV module under dynamic climatic conditions (200-1000) W/m2 and (25-50)
◦ C and mitigate the inaccurate response. It is inferred that the oscillations in the power tracking are minimum (less than 1.5%)

with this simple proposed algorithm.

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