Improved hybrid algorithms-based MPPT algorithm for PV system operating under severe weather conditions

This study aims to provide a comparison between several maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms for PV system under severe weather conditions. Two MPPT hybrid algorithms are proposed, namely (a) hybrid combination of fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and the incremental conductance (IC) and (b) MPPT controller integrates FLC and perturb and observe (P&O) method. The two developed hybrid algorithms combined the strength of both P&O, IC with FLC in single framework. MATLAB/Simulink is used to investigate the response of both algorithms. Several weather conditions are simulated: (i) uniform irradiation, (ii) sudden changing, and (iii) partial shading. Under partial shading on PV panel, multi-peaks appear in power-voltage characteristics of the panel. Simulation results showed that ability of FLC to track MPP degrade significantly when testing at weather conditions far from those used for training. Finally, the proposed hybrid algorithms successfully eliminate the previous limitations associated with FLC, IC, and P&O algorithms individually with efficiency exceeds 97%.