Evaluation of fuzzy logic based maximum power point tracking for photovoltaic power system

Efficient extraction of available power from photovoltaic system is a mandatory task that needs extraction techniques. A number of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques has been presented of which conventional techniques like perturb and observe (P&O), incremental conductance (InCond) and hill-climbing are widely in use mainly because of simple implementation and less complexity; however they fail to track the right perturbation direction for rapid change atmospheric conditions and oscillations during steady-sate operation. Different methods has been devised to improve the drawbacks, among them fuzzy logic based technique is the one that works well for systems with no accurate mathematical. Thus, in this paper fuzzy logic controller (FLC) based MPPT technique using PV voltage and power variations as input and reference voltage change as output has been proposed and implemented along with P&O method. The simulation results of MPPT trajectory tracking capability, dynamic and steady state responses for variable irradiance revealed superior performance of fuzzy based technique over P&O method.