Edinburgh Napier University

  This article proposes a fast and efficient maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) systems under rapidly changing partial shading conditions. An intelligent mechanism is adopted to systematically schedule the search for the global maximum power point (GMPP) on the P-V curve. As a result, the voltage track, i.e., the path length that the operating point traverses along the voltage axis of the curve (until it converges to GMPP), is reduced. The search region is further minimized using a novel skipping scheme, where the voltage section that does not contain GMPP is discarded. The superiority of the proposed scheme is evaluated against two recent algorithms, namely, the maximum power trapezium and the flower pollination MPPT. The performance is analyzed in terms of convergence time, voltage track, and transient efficiency. The MATLAB simulation is verified experimentally using a PV array simulator, in conjunction with a buck-boost converter. The competing MPPT algorithms are implemented using the TMS320F240 DSP on the dSPACE DS1104 platform. The results indicate that under the same operating and shading conditions, the proposed scheme is the fastest and most reliable and exhibits the highest overall transient efficiency.