Comparison of MPPT techniques: “P&O” and “InCd” for PV systems

Abstract

The energy utilization efficiency of the photovoltaic can be significantly improved by employing the MPPT (Maximum power point trackers) method. The MPPT is one of the key technologies in photovoltaic generation system;it allows extraction of maximum available power from the photovoltaic (PV) array.The maximum available power is tracked using specialized algorithms such as Perturb and Observe (P&O), and Incremental Conductance (InCd), which are widely applied in the MPPTcontroller due to their simplicity and easy implementation. This paper presents a detailed comparison of their theories and their simulations under the Matlab / Simulink environment. The obtained results show that the use of MPPT control improves in a considerable way the performance of PV systems.