Effect of response time and starting point of duty cycle in maximum power point tracking operation of solar panel using PO algorithm

This paper presents a detailed view of Perturb and Observe (PO) method for maximum power point (MPP) tracking (MPPT) of a solar panel. After development of Simulink model of a PV array, a load was connected via a DC-DC converter and PO method was applied to adjust the duty cycle of the converter. The change required in duty cycle with respect to load and insolation have been critically observed. Observations shows that MPPT algorithms work erratically due to insufficient delay between two consecutive feedbacks and improper starting point of duty cycle. These points are discussed in details in this paper. An optimum delay between two feedbacks and starting point for duty cycle have been proposed to track the maximum power for a wide range of loads.