Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper proposes an improved maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) system. The scheme is a hybrid between the adaptive perturb and observe and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The algorithm incorporates the search-skip-judge (SSJ) mechanism to minimize the region within the P-V curve to be searched by the PSO. Furthermore, the PSO performance is enhanced by ensuring that the regions that have been previously explored (by other particle) will not be searched again by (another particle). Thus, the unnecessary movement of particles is minimized-leading to faster convergence. The proposed method is evaluated against four well-known MPPT techniques, namely the modified incremental conductance, the original version of SSJ, the modified cuckoo search, and the hybrid PSO. In addition, an experimental prototype, which is based on PV array simulator is used to verify the simulation. The competing algorithms are tested with a buck-boost converter, driven by the TMS320F240 DSP on the dSPACE DS1104 platform. It was found that the proposed scheme converges to the global maximum power point (GMPP) most rapidly and the GMPP tracking is guaranteed even under complex partial shading conditions.