An improved step-up converter with a developed real-time fuzzy-based MPPT controller for PV-based residential applications

Abstract

Residential photovoltaic power plants (RPVPPs) have a wide area of utilization in PV applications. Thus, low-voltage penetration of these plants to the grid is a crucial issue for the high efficient operation of a photovoltaic (PV) system. The conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods have some drawbacks. Thus, intelligent MPPT methods are proposed in the literature to achieve these problems. This paper presents a new real-time fuzzy-based MPPT controller design for a new high gain transformer-less and single-switched power boost converter operating with different duty cycles for PV-based residential applications. The proposed structure can ensure an enhancement in voltage gain by eight times for duty cycle of 50% that is much more effective than a conventional boost converter that can gain the input voltage to two times at the output of the converter. The higher amounts of the DC voltage gain are possible by adding the novel and efficient switched capacitor (SC) blocks. The proposed control method uses designed fuzzy-based rules to control the duty cycle of the implemented power boost converter in the real-time domain. A data acquisition card is used to control the duty cycle and monitoring the PV system. The proposed fuzzy-based algorithm is performed in advanced LABVIEW software. The experimental results show that the developed fuzzy-based controller is independent of the circuit parameters and has a more reliable response for changing environmental conditions. The accuracy of the applied fuzzy-based MPPT method in the tested PV system varies between 95.8% and 99.6%.