Abstract
The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm has become an integral part of many charge controllers that are used in photovoltaic (PV) systems. Most of the existing algorithms have a compromise among simplicity, tracking speed, ability to track accurately, and cost. In this work, a novel “straight-line approximation based Maximum Power Point (MPP) finding algorithm” is proposed where the intersections of two linear lines have been utilized to find the MPP, and investigated for its effectiveness in tracking maximum power points in case of rapidly changing weather conditions along with tracking speed using standard irradiance and temperature curves for validation. In comparison with a conventional Perturb and Observe (P&O) method, the Proposed method takes fewer iterations and also, it can precisely track the MPP s even in a rapidly varying weather condition with minimal deviation. The Proposed algorithm is also compared with P&O algorithm in terms of accuracy in duty cycle and efficiency. The results show that the errors in duty cycle and power extraction are much smaller than the conventional P&O algorithm.