Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Solar energy is a very general source of renewable energy due to some advantages. In many countries, Photovoltaic power systems have been mostly used. However, there are many urgent issues to tackle in the application of PV power systems. The main problem is how to improve efficiency. Since the PV arrays display a nonlinear Power–Voltage (P–V) characteristic curve which varies with insolation and temperature, how to achieve Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is a very significant technology. In this work, we have explored the optimization methods for efficient tracking such as PSO and GSA. The essential issue of MPPT control is an optimization problem which can be achieved by using evolutionary algorithms. PSO algorithm owns the characteristics of good robustness, parallel processing and high probability of finding global optimal solution. By combining GSA to PSO, the performance has been improved. The proposed GSAPSO algorithm greatly shortens the searching time, reduces the fluctuation of output waveform and improves the efficiency through particles dormancy and activation control, optimal number of particles algorithm and search sequence selection. It achieves a smooth starting for maximum power and achieves it in less time than the widely used other methods.

Keywords: Solar Cell, GSA, MPPT, PSO, PO