Comparison of the Perturb and Observe and simulated annealing approaches for maximum power point tracking in a photovoltaic system under partial shading conditions

Due to the low efficiency of Photovoltaic (PV) cells, it is essential that PV systems are operated optimally to ensure that maximum power is available from the system under changing conditions. Tracking of this Maximum Power Point (MPP) becomes more complicated when multiple PV modules connected in series and parallel arrangements experience Partial Shading Conditions (PSC). This paper proposes a Global Maximum Power Point Tracking (GMPPT) technique based on the optimization technique of Simulated Annealing (SA) to track the Global MPP (GMPP) of PV modules under PSC. The performance of the SA algorithm is compared against the Perturb and Observe technique to show its improved performance in tracking to the GMPP for a two module system.