Tracking the maximum power from a PV panels using

of Neuro-fuzzy controller
H. Afghoul

F. Krim

Department of Electronics
University of Setif 1
University of Msila, Algeria
Power Electronics and
L.E.P.C.I Laboratory,
Industrial Control Laboratory
University of Setif 1,
L.E.P.C.I, Route de Bjaa,
laboratory L.A.S.S, Msila
19000, Stif, Algeria
krim_f@ieee.org
Hamza_88_elec@hotmail.com
Abstract Photovoltaic electricity is seen as an important source
of renewable energy. The photovoltaic array is an unstable
source of power since the peak power point depends on the
temperature and the irradiation level. This paper presents a
simulation of PV system (PV panel, boost inverter and a
resistance load) using MATLAB. To prove the efficiency of this
system we applied two methods of MPPT. The different steps of
the design of these algorithms of MPPT are presented together
with its simulation. The performance comparison between
Neuro-fuzzy controller and Incremental conductance method
(IncCond) has been carried out which shown the effectiveness of
Neuro-fuzzy logic controller to draw much energy and a fast
response against change in working conditions.
Keywords-component; Neuro-fuzzy ,Icrement conductance, PV
system, Maximum Power Point Tracking, DC-DC converter.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The demand for electrical energy is increasing around

the world; it has motivated the use of new renewable
sources of energy. Among the unconventional renewable
energy sources that have been studied, PV energy is now
becoming a real economical renewable source of energy, since
it offers many advantages such as incurring no fuel costs,
not being polluting, requiring little maintenance, and
emitting no noise [1, 2].
PV systems have been developed to supply clean energy to
fulfill the energy demand required by the modern society.
However, the widespread use of PV systems poses several
challenges such as increasing the efficiency of energy
conversion, ensuring the reliability of power electronic
converters, and meeting the requirements for grid connection
[2].
Maximum power extraction can be obtained by realizing
dynamic or static method. In the dynamic method the
maximum power point (MPP) is achieved based on tracking the
sun movement. This approach may not be suitable for energy
conversion at a small to medium power range due to its high
cost and energy consumption. In the static method, which is
suitable for small power range; the maximum power is tracked
using power converter with high frequency to adjust
continuously the operating point at the MPP [3].

D. Chikouche

A. Beddar

Technology faculty
Laboratoire dAnalyse des
Signaux et Systme L.A.S.S,
University of Msila
Algeria
dj_chikou@yahoo.fr

Department of Electrical
Engineering
Technology faculty
University of Skikda,
Algeria
antar_tech@hotmail.fr

To obtain the maximum power from a PV array, a

maximum power point tracker MPPT is used. The Increment
conductance IncCond is one of the most commonly used in
MPPT methods for its simplicity and ease of implementation.
The IncCond works well when the irradiance changes slowly
but it presents drawbacks such as slow response speed and
oscillation around the MPP in steady state depends on the
choice of the step size of duty cycle [4].
Recently, fuzzy logic has been applied for tracking the
MPP of PV systems because it has the advantages of
robustness, design simplicity, and minimal requirement for
accurate mathematical model. It is found that fuzzy logic-based
P&O and hill climbing MPPT methods provide better
performance due to optimized perturbation. However, the fuzzy
methods depend on careful selection of parameters, of
definition of membership function, and of the fuzzy rules table.
Developing fuzzy method also involves expert knowledge and
experimentation in selecting parameters and membership
functions. For this reason, adaptive fuzzy logic control and
parameters optimization techniques such as genetic algorithm
and particle swam optimization have been introduced to
overcome the problem in MPPT algorithms.
A number of studies on MPPT have concentrated on the
application of artificial neural network ANN. In most of
these ANN-based methods, large numbers of field data
considering atmospheric conditions are required to train the
ANN. Moreover, the main problem of ANN-based method is it
cant be implemented for PV arrays with different
characteristics. In a related work, a voltage-based MPPT using
ANN has been developed in which an optimal instantaneous
voltage factor was determined from a trained ANN. The inputs
of the ANN consist of temperature module and solar
irradiation.
The paper presents a method based on Adaptive Neurofuzzy Inference System ANFIS to estimate the MPP using
the data collected from several experiments performed in
different environmental conditions. This paper utilizes
statistical analysis methods to analyze the data of the
simulation that has been collected in different environmental
conditions. The statistical analysis will confirm the necessity of
using both (V ) and short circuit current (I ) as input data for
ANFIS to estimate the maximum power point voltage (V ).

The ANFIS generates a duty cycle value foor the pulse with
modulation PWM generator. The PWM is thhen applied to the
switching of the boost converter connected to a PV array.
II.

PV CELL MODEL

The use of equivalent electric circuits makkes it possible to

model characteristics of a PV cell. The methoods used here are
implemented in MATLAB programs for simullations. The same
modeling technique is also applicable for modeling a PV
module. Shorting together the terminals of thee cell, the photon
generated current will follow out of the cell as a short-circuit
current (I ). Thus, I
I when there is nno connection to
the PV cell (open-circuit), the photon geneerated current is
shunted internally by the intrinsic p-n juncction diode. This
gives the open circuit voltage (V ) [5]. The simplest model of
a PV cell equivalent circuit consists of an ideeal current source
in parallel with an ideal diode. The current ssource represents
the current generated by photons (often denooted as I or IL ),
and its output is constant under constant temperature and
constant incident radiation of light. The PV panel is usually
represented by the single exponential modeel or the double
exponential model. The single exponential m
model is shown in
Fig.1.

There are three key operating

g points on the I-V curve
of a PV cell. They are the sho
ort circuit point, maximum
power point and the open circuit point.
p
At the open circuit
point on the I-V curve, V V and I 0. After substituting
these values in the single exponentiial Eq.1 the equation can be
obtained [6].
0

The mathematical model which relates the output current to

the output voltage is given by the following exxpression:
I

I . exp

(V R .I)
A.K.T

V R .I

(2)

At the short circuit point on thee I-V curve, I

0. Similarly, using equation (1), we can obtain:
(

I and V

. .

(3)

At the maximum power pointt of the I-V curve, I I

and V V
. We can use th
hese values to obtain the
following:
.

. .

(4)
All values of this PV panel are sh
hown in the table below:
TABLE I.

Fig. 1. Single exponential model of a PV Cell.

. .

PV MODE
EL PARAMETERS

Thermal voltage timing

completion factor

5.472 V

Series resistance

1.324

Reference irradiance

1000 W/m2

Reference temperature

25 C

Overall heat capacity per unit

area of the PV cell/module

5*104
J/(C*m2)

(1)

Effective area of the PV

cell/module

1.5 m2

Where:
: Photo generated current;

Transmittance-absorption
product of PV cells

0.9

Overall heat loss coefficient

30
W/(C*m2)

: Dark saturation current;

: flowing in the shunt resistance;
: Cell series resistance;

III.

: Cell (shunt) resistance;

: Diode quality factor;
: Electron electrical charge 1.6 10
: Boltzmanns constant 1.38 10

C;
JK;

MAXIMUM POWER POINT

T TRACING TECHNIQUES

A. Incremental Conductance
m
is based on the fact
The IncCond method [8-10], method
that the slope of the PV array poweer curve is zero at the MPP,
positive on the left of the MPP, an
nd negative on the right, as
given by:

: Ambient temperature, in Kelvin.

meters I ,R , R
Eq.1 is nonlinear. Furthermore, the param
and A change with temperature and irradiannce depending on
manufacturing tolerance. Numerical methods and curve fitting
can be used to estimate this equation [6, 7].

0,
0,
0,

(5)

Since
(

(6)

Eq. 5 can be rewritten as:

,

only constant or have linear relatiions to the inputs. With a

constant output MF, this method is
i known as the zero-order
Sugeno method, whereas with a lin
near relation, it is known as
the first-order Sugeno method [15].
A typical rule in a Sugeno fuzzzy model has the following
form:

(7)

,
0
The MPP can be tracked by comparing tthe instantaneous
conductance (I/V) to the incremental conducctance (I/V) as
shown in the flowchart in Fig. 4. D is the duty cycle of the DCDC inverter which the PV array is forced too operate, at the
MPP. Once the MPP is reached, the operationn of the PV array
is maintained at this point unless a changee in I is noted,
indicating a change in atmospheric conditionns and the MPP.
The algorithm decrements or increments d to track the new
MPP.

hen, Output z = ax + by + c
If Input-1 = x, and Input-2 = y, th
For a zero-order Sugeno model, the output level z is a
constant (a = b = 0). The outpu
ut level z of each rule is
weighted by the firing strength w of
o the rule. For example, for
an AND rule with Input-1 = x, and
a Input-2 = y, the firing
strength is
AND(F (x)), F (y))

Where, F1 (.) and F2 (.) are the MFs

M for inputs 1 and 2.
The final output of the system is the weighted average of
the outputs of all the rules, computed
d as:
Final output

N
N

N g z , g

(8)

A Sugeno rule operates as shown

n in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. First order Sugeno-type inference system.

Fig. 4. Incremental Conductance Method (IncCond).

B. MPPT using Neuro-Fuzzy technique

The Adaptive-Neuro Fuzzy Inference System is a hybrid
system that combines the potential benefits of bboth the methods
ANN and FL [11]. This technique has beeen employed in
numerous modeling and forecasting problem
ms [12]. ANFIS
starts its functionality with the fuzzification off input parameters
defining the membership function and design of fuzzy IFTHEN rules, by effectively employing the leearning capability
of ANN for automatic fuzzy rules geneeration and self
adjustment of membership functions [13].
In this work, the Sugeno method or Takaagi-Sugeno-Kang
method of fuzzy inference has been used. Thee Sugeno method
was first introduced in 1985 [14]. It is similarr to the Mamdani
method in many aspects. The first two par
arts of the fuzzy
inference process, fuzzifying the inputs and appplying the fuzzy
operator are exactly the same. The difference is that unlike the
Mamdani method, in the Sugeno method thee output MFs are

The big advantage of the Sugen

no-type FIS, is that it avoids
the use of a time consuming defuzzzification, since it is a more
compact and computationally efficiient representation than the
Mamdani system, the Sugeno systeem lends itself to the use of
adaptive techniques for constructting fuzzy models. These
adaptive techniques can be used to customize the MFs so that
the fuzzy system accurately modeels the data. Some of the
advantages of the Sugeno-type method are that it is
computationally efficient, it works well with linear techniques
(e.g., PID control), with optimizatio
on and adaptive techniques,
it guarantees continuity of the outp
put surface, and it is wellsuited to mathematical analysis.
Fig. 6 shows the basic structure of the ANFIS algorithm for
a Sugeno-type FIS. The various layeers shown bellow

Fig. 6. Typical ANFIS structure.

Layer 1 (Membership layer).

Layer 2 (Fuzzy AND layer).

Layer 3 (Normalizing layer).

Layer 4 (Partial output layer).

Layer 5 (Output layer).

Fig. 7 shows the first order Sugeno moddel in MATLABSimulink with two inputs and one output.

Fig. 9. Matlab window of the rule viewer wiith two inputs and one output.

In Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 the Neuro

o-fuzzy method is faster and
more stable than IncCond method.
200
180
160

Fig. 7. Matlab windows of the first order Sugeno model with two inputs and
one output.

IV.

SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE COMPARISON

All simulation results using model in Mattlab/simulink and

SimPower System Blockset are presented.
Fig. 8 presents the model used in the simulaation

Power (W)

140

INC
NEURO-FUZZY

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0

10
Time (s
s)

15

20

Fig. 10. PV power output with constant solarr irradiation ( 1000

).

100
90

INC

80

NEURO-FUZZY

Fig. 8. System simulation model.

The PV model, boost type converter model, and the two

MPPTs approach are modeling in upper figuure. In the study,
the parameters of the components are chhosen to deliver
maximum 168W of power in standards conditions. The
specification of the system is tabulated in Tabble 1. The Neurofuzzy controller is evaluated from the aspect of robustness to
irradiance. In each figures, the change in levell of irradiance is
presented for comparison in order to show the robustness.
Fig. 9 shows the rule view interfaces useed to access data
cycle output values.

Voltage (V)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

10
Tim
me (s)

15

20

Fig. 11. Output voltage of the Dc-Dc inverter.

The duty cycle corresponding to Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 is

shown in Fig. 12:

0.5

0.7

0.45

D
u
ttycycle

0.4

NEURO-FUZZY
NEURO-FUZZY
INCINC

0.6

INC
NEURO-FUZZY

0.5 0.21
Dutty cycle

0.35

0.3

0.25

0.2
0

10
T ime (s)

Fig. 12. Duty cycle for a fixed irradiation ( 1000

15

).

0
0

18

19

50

100

V.

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0

50

100

150
200
T ime (s)

250

300

350

Fig. 13. The solar irradiation for many levels..

150
200
Time (s)

250

300

350

CONCLUSION

This paper presents a comparative study between IncCond

and Neuro-Fuzzy methods, for PV installation. All simulation
results in different levels of illumination show that the ANFIS
model can provide a higher power. It has been shown that the
system based on Neuro-fuzzy is able to learn the PV properties
gradually, changing solar radiation conditions and leads to a
quick tracking of the MPP when the solar radiation is rapidly
changing.
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200
NEURO-FUZZY
INC

64.2

180

64.15

[1]

160
64.1
140

64.05
64
44

zoom
44.2

44.4

100
80
60
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150
200
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250

300

350

Fig. 14. PV power output with solar irradiation for many levels.
100
NEURO-FUZZY
INC

90
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17

zoom

Fig. 16. Duty cycle for variable irradiation.

800
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16

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0.2

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20
10
0
0

50

100

150
200
Time (s)

250

300

Fig. 15. Tension in the output of the Dc-Dc inverter for many levels.

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