Improved Perturb and Observation Method Based on Support Vector Regression

Solar energy is the most valuable renewable energy source due to its abundant storage and is pollution-free. The output power of photovoltaic (PV) arrays will vary with external conditions, such as irradiance and temperature fluctuations. Therefore, an increase in the energy conversion rate is inseparable from maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The existing MPPT technology cannot either balance the tracking speed and tracking accuracy, or the implementation cost is too high due to the complexity of the calculation. In this paper, a new maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method was proposed. It improves the traditional perturb and observation (P&O) method by introducing the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm. In this method, the current maximum power point voltage is predicted by the trained model and compared with the current operating voltage to predict a reasonable step size. The boost DC/ DC (Direct current-Direct current converter) convert system applying the improved method and the traditional P&O was simulated in MATLAB-Simulink, respectively. The results of the simulation show that compared with the traditional P&O method, the proposed new method both improves the convergence time and tracking accuracy.