Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906

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Ain Shams Engineering Journal

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Electrical Engineering

Optimal fractional-order PI with DC-DC converter and PV system

Ahmed T. Mohamed a, Mahmoud F. Mahmoud a, R.A. Swief b,⇑, Lobna A. Said a, Ahmed G. Radwan c,d
a
Nanoelectronics Integrated Systems Center (NISC), Nile University, Giza, Egypt
b
Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
c
Engineering Mathematics and Physics Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt
d
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nile University, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a design and analysis for the PV system with a DC-DC boost converter controlled by
Received 20 November 2020 the Fractional Order PI controller (FOPI). The study includes obtaining the optimal parameters for the PV
Revised 29 December 2020 model and the operating parameters for the FOPI controller. The first part’s objective function is to search
Accepted 8 January 2021
a five-parameter model based on the data-sheet given by commercial PV modules for a single-diode (SD)
Available online 26 February 2021
model. In the second part of the study, a detailed comparison is executed versus P, PI, PID, and FOPI con-
trollers showing the effect of implementing Fractional order controllers on the results. A new application
Keywords:
of the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) and water cycle algorithm (WCA) is presented to identify the
PV modeling
Fractional-order circuits
models parameters of PV modules and the FOPI controller’s tuning. The booster converter model’s sim-
FOPI controller ulations demonstrate that the proposed optimal FOPI controller can improve the feedback system’s tran-
Boost converter sient response by reducing its control effort with the optimal PID controller. The FOPI controller also
Meta-heuristic algorithms increases the robustness of the boost converter to trace in input voltage. The results show that FPA
FPA demonstrated better performance in two aspects, finding the PV model’s parameters and obtaining the
WCA optimal parameters for the FOPI controller.
MPPT Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
In power systems, a great challenge to generate power is
increasing due to the depletion and the harmful effect of non-
renewable energy resources [1,2]. The solar energy system has
become the future of power generation on earth due to the huge
merits of its functions, such as the minimal maintenance cost,
noise-free, and environment friendly characteristics. [3–5].
Renewable energy grows dramatically due to the harmful effect
of greenhouse gases and fossil fuel extraction. According to World
Energy Outlook, 2018 reports [6], photo-voltaic power generation
will increase substantially by 2040 and obtain a global capacity
to generate more than all other forms of energy.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Rania.Abdel-Wahed@eng.asu.edu.eg (R.A. Swief).
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
Despite the advantages of solar energy, there are many disad-
vantages and challenges of using this type of energy [7], such as
the non-linearity design of solar systems, low energy performance,
high initial cost, and reliance on climate conditions such as tem-
perature and Irradiance [8,9].
There are different types of models to describe the behavior of
any PV modules, such as the single diode (SD), the double diode
(DD), and the three diodes (TD) models [10]. In this paper, SD is
used thanks to its simplicity yet with reasonable accuracy, besides
its parameter can be obtained experimentally with easy and accu-
rate techniques [11,12]. The identification of PV parameters is an
essential point of the study [10–14].
Meta-heuristics introduce optimization techniques which
gained a significant popularity in the past two decades [15], as they
provide reasonable solutions in an acceptable time solving difficult
issues in different fields [16]. Nature has influenced some of the
meta-heuristic techniques [17] such as Flower Pollination Algo-
rithm (FPA) [18], Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA) [19], and Whale
Optimization Algorithm [20]. FPA is used to tune the PID controller
in the Load Frequency Control (LFC) of a multi-area interconnected
power system [21]. WCA is used to get the optimal placement and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.01.005
2090-4479/Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al.
sizing of distributed generation and capacitor banks in distribution
systems [22].
In recent years, different optimization techniques have been
introduced to estimate the parameters of PV such as: the Genetic
Algorithm (GA) [23,24], iteration technique [25], Whale optimiza-
tion algorithm (WOA) [26,27], Simulated Annealing (SA) [28], Dif-
ferential Evaluation (DE) [29],and Fireworks Algorithm [30].
However, these algorithms still require some modification to
obtain the most optimized parameter for different solar PV mod-
ules. The most efficient algorithm for finding the optimized value
of solar PV parameters is yet to be found [31].
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is an algorithm used to
charge controllers to extract the maximum power from the PV
modules under different conditions [32,33]. MPPT tests the perfor-
mance of the PV module and compares it with the battery voltage.
It adjusts the optimum power that the PV module can provide to
charge the battery and converts it to the optimum voltage provid-
ing the highest current for the battery [34,35].
There are different methods to get MPPT such as the constant
voltage (CV) method [36]. MPP Locus characterization is used to
get a linear relation between the voltage and the current [37,38].
The beta method is the approximation of the point of maximum
power through the equation of an intermediate variable b [39].
The most popular method to get MPPT is the Proportional Integral
Derivative (PID) controller [40].
Recently developed fractional calculus applications are increas-
ingly used in different fields such as chemistry [41], mechanics
[42], electricity [43,44] and control [45,46]. This field opens the
door to researchers offering a higher degree of freedom to control
the systems [47].
One of fractional calculus applications is Fractional Order Pro-
portional Integral Derivative (FOPID) controller [48]. The main dif-
ference between PID and FOPID is the non-integer orders of
derivative and integral parts. The FOPID controller has two extra
parameters, l and k, which make the controller more adaptable
as shown in Fig. 1.
In [49], FOPID controller was used for load frequency control
(LFC) in an interconnected power system. The results showed that
FOPID controller is better than the conventional PID controller. In
[50], a FOPID controller was designed for controlling a PV-system
DC-DC boost converter. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
algorithm was applied to achieve the best system performance in
the proposed controller. The results for the simulation were mea-
sured in terms of the integrated time-weighted squared error (ITSE)
criterion, the percentage overshoot (MP) as well as the rise time (Tr).
In this paper, the FOPID controller improves the system’s
dynamic response and sets best gain values with the FOMCON
toolbox [51]. A Fractional control system is designed to improve
system performance, particularly to reduce potential input voltage
disturbances.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for FOPID.
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Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906
This paper’s objectives can be summarized as follows: A PV
model is proposed by using FPA and WCA which can be used for
any commercial PV module. MPPT is achieved for PV Module by
using a boost DC-DC converter and FOPI controller. The effect of
using the FOPI controller on a boost DC-DC converter is investi-
gated and the process of tuning the controller’s parameters using
FPA and WCA.
This paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, two meta-
heuristic optimization techniques are reviewed (FPA and WCA).
Section 3 shows a mathematical model of the PV model. Section 4
shows the DC-DC boost converter and its functions. Section 5
shows the proposed design of the FOPI controller for DC-DC- boost
converter. In Section 6, the results for both PV tuning model and
FOPI are presented. Section 8 shows the conclusion of this paper.
2. Meta-heuristic optimization techniques
2.1. Flower pollination algorithm
In nature, flower pollination imitates the survival of floral plants
which reproduce the fittest among them. Flowers pollination algo-
rithm (FPA) (see Table 1) is a meta-heuristic intelligence metaphor
which is based on the role of flowers in the plants proliferation. The
algorithm imitates the flowering plant pollination cycle and offers
a faster rate of convergence with an efficient solution [52,53].
Global and local pollination are the major stages in the design of
single flower pollination algorithm SFPA. The global pollination
moves pollens of the flowers by pollinators such as: butterflies
and pollens, because the insects usually fly for a long time.
2.2. Water cycle algorithm
In recent years, several and distinct meta-heuristic optimization
algorithms based on the principle of water have been proposed to
solve various optimization problems [54]. The basic principles and
ideas underlying the WCA are inspired by nature and focused on
the study of the water cycle mechanism and how rivers and
streams in the real world flow to the sea [19].
The WCA (see Table 2) is inspired by the nature of water cycle
processes. Water flows from the top of the mountains into the
sea, forming streams and rivers. Rivers and streams on the way
down catch water from rain and other sources. Clouds form as
the steaming water rises in the atmosphere. These clouds are con-
centrated in a colder atmosphere, returning the water or precipita-
tion in the form of rain, forming new streams [55].
Similar to any other meta-heuristic algorithms, the WCA begins
from rain or hail with an initial population called "population of
streams". The best streams are chosen as the sea, a selection of
streams with a qualified fitness are considered as rivers and the
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906

Table 1 and solved using FPA and WCA. The error is minimized between
FPA pseudo code. the aimed and computed performance by using an objective
The initialization of FPA parameters n: population size, function.
p: probability switch In this paper, the SD model is used to describe the PV module.
N: maximum iteration number. Fig. 2 shows the circuit diagram of the SD model. It consists of a
Initialization of a population of random n pollen gametes.
Then, initialize the fitness of each search agent.
current source in parallel with single diode and shunt resistance
Find the best search agent (q ) obtained so far in the initial population. and in series with resistance [60]. The maximum current Im , the
z=0 maximum output power of the panel P m and the photo-
While z < N generated current Iph are related as follows [61].:
For i = 1: n
if rand < p " ! #
Draw a (d-dimensional) step vector L which obeys a RP V m  Im Rs V mnV
þIm Rs Vm
0 Im ¼ I0 e t þ ; ð1Þ
Le vy distribution Via RP þ RS n KqB T RP
kCðkÞ sinðp2kÞ
L p ðm  mo > 0Þ;
1
m1þk
Do Global pollination Via
X zþ1 i ¼ X z i þ cLðkÞðq  X zi Þ; V oc  V oc 
else Iph ¼ þ I0 enV t  1 ; ð2Þ
RP
Draw a uniform distribution in [0,1].
Do Local pollination via   V m þIm Rs  V þI R 
X zþ1 i ¼ X z i þ ðX z j  X z kÞ: Pm ¼ V m Iph  I0 e nV t  1 
m m s
; ð3Þ
end if RP
Evaluate new solutions
if value of objective function enhanced. where RP is the shunt resistance, RS is the series resistance, V m is the
The solution is updated. maximum output voltage of the PV module, and I0 is the reverse
end if. saturation current of the diode. n is the ideality factor of the diode,
Update the current global solution in all populations q
V t is the thermal voltage, K B is Boltzmann’s constant
end for
z=z+1 ð1:38065  1023 J=KÞ; T is the cell temperature in kelvin, q is elec-
end while tron chargeð1:6022  1019 Þ,and V oc is the open-circuit voltage.
return q
In SD model, there are five parameters: I0 ; RP ; Rs ; n and Iph . FPA
and WCA are used to obtain derived parameters depending on real
data from real commercial systems, as shown in Table 3 [57–59].
Table 2
WCA pseudo code.
The objective function (f objectiv e ) of this system is the sum of the
percentage error between the maximum calculated parameters
Most N sr are chosen from the best people as sea and rivers,
(Im ; Iph ,and P m ) from Eqs. (1)–(3) and the data-sheet parameters
where the (minimum values). The least important raindrop is known as the
sea. (Imdatasheet ; Iphdatasheet ,and Pmdatasheet ) from Table 3.
In fact, the number of rivers is summarized as N sr is given while a single sea.    
N sr ¼ NumberofRiv ers þ ðSea ¼ 1Þ Im  Imdatasheet  Iph  Iphdatasheet 
f objectiv e ¼  þ 
N Raindrops ¼ N pop  N sr
  
Imdatasheet   Iphdatasheet 
   
N Sn ¼ round PCost n x N Raindrops ; n ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N sr
 Pm  Pmdatasheet 
þ  : ð4Þ
N sr
cost i
P mdatasheet 
i¼1

Where: N Sn is the number of streams flowing to the specific rivers or sea.

Streams will flow in different directions into the rivers.
This concept is also applicable to rivers flowing into the sea. The parameters I0 ; n, and Rs are calculated from FPA or WCA, Iph
Hence, the new stream and river positions can be calculated as: and RP are calculated from the Eqs. 2 and 1. Table 4 shows the cal-
 
X iþ1 i
Stream ¼ X Stream þ rand  C  X iRiv er  X iStream culated parameters of the PV model.
 
X iþ1 i
Riv er ¼ X Riv er þ rand  C  X iSea  X iRiv er
 
 i i  4. DC-DC boost converter
if X Sea  X Riv er  < dmax i ¼ 1; 2; 3; . . . ; Nsr  1
Evaporation and raining process end.
where: dmax is a small number (almost 0). Nowadays the DC-DC boost converter is mainly used for many
When a river has finally joined the sea, the distance between the river and the industrial applications that need variable DC supply. For solar
sea applications, the converter is used to raise the solar-panel output
will become less than dmax
i
voltage by adjusting the operating duration of the boost converter.
iþ1 i d
dmax ¼ dmax  max iteration
max
MPPT algorithm is used in the DC-DC boost converter to make it
X New¼ LB þ rand  ðUB  LBÞ
Stream operate at the maximum power from PV Panels. It compares the
Where: LB is the lower bound and UB is the upper bound.
required voltage to charge the battery with the output voltage
from the PV panels and decides the power that the PV module
can produce for charging and calculate the maximum current to
majority of the streams are chosen as rivers or directly into the sea charge the battery. The mathematical equations for the boost con-
[56]. verter can be written as follows [62]:
Vi
Z source ¼ ; ð5aÞ
3. The PV module Ii
Vi
Vo ¼ 0 < D < 1; ð5bÞ
This paper discusses two optimization techniques, which can be ð1  DÞ
used to obtain promising values for PV parameters. The informa- Vo
tion selected from the data-sheet and used for this process [57– Ii ¼ ; ð5cÞ
ð1  DÞ
59], include the open-circuit voltage, short circuit current, maxi-
Vo
mum power, maximum voltage, and maximum current. Estimation Z source ¼ ð1  DÞ2 ¼ Z o ð1  DÞ2 ; ð5dÞ
Io
of these parameters is written as an optimization problem formula
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Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of PV model.

" dil
# " #
 "1#

where D is the duty cycle corresponds to the MOSFET ON-Time ratio 0 0 il i
of overall time (T), D is between zero and one (null implies that the
dt
¼ 1
þ L V i; ð9aÞV o ¼ ½ 0 1  l :ð9bÞ
dV c 0 RC Vc 0 Vc
dt
MOSFET is OFF always and the MOSFET is ON always). So the above
equation indicates that Vout is always higher than Vin and rises in
D. Approximate realistic constraints are 20 to 80 percent for the
4.2. Off state position
boost converter duty cycle [63].
At maximum power Z source ¼ Z MPP ,
The switch is turned off in the second mode, as shown in Fig. 4
V MPP and the diode is moved forward. The capacitor is charged via the
Z MPP ¼ : ð6Þ inductor’s released energy. When the boost converter is used, the
IMPP
load current remains constant.
Thus, duty ratio is modified to: The state-space model of Off state position:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
" # " #
 " #

Z MPP dil
0 1
il 1
il
D¼1 : ð7Þ dt
¼ L
þ L
V i; ð10aÞV o ¼ ½ 0 0  :ð10bÞ
ZO dV c 1 1
Vc Vc
dt C RC 0
When the load is connected, the load impedance is given by the fol-
lowing equation.
5. Proposed design of FOPID controller for DC-DC boost
Z o P Z MPP : ð8Þ converter
The dc-dc boost converter operate at 2 positions:
The solar panel levels are relatively low and greatly uncon-
4.1. On state position trolled because they differ with the climate and the temperature.
Consequently, weak and fluctuating PV systems must be boosted
The operative state of the boost converter depends on the to the higher controlled voltage. The DC-DC boost converter is usu-
switching frequency, if the switch is closed as shown in Fig. 3(a), ally used to control the voltage of the PV module with a feedback
a battery provides the inductor with the power. There is no current control circuit.
passing through the capacitor, and the load current is steady and Fig. 5 shows the PV system which consists of a number of PV
provided by the capacitor discharge. panels connected in series, providing the power to the load
The state space model of the On state position: through the MPPT control system. Due to climate change, the con-
nected PV modules will not deliver the required power to the load,
so the PV system may lose the optimal capability for supplying the
Table 3 demand power. A bypass diode is connected to each panel to over-
The data-sheet for different commercial PV modules.
come the drawback of this scenario. Also, a blocking diode must be
Company Canadian Solar [57] Kyocera [58] Solarex [59] connected to prevent the reverse current of connected diodes.
Model CS6K-280 M KC200GT MSX-60 MPPT control system is used to extract the maximum power
Cell type Mono-crystalline Multicrystal Polycrystalline from the PV system while taking its measurement by sensing the
Im [A] 8.89 7.61 3.5 current and voltage using current and voltage sensors. DC-DC con-
V oc [V] 38.5 32.9 21.1 verter is used to connect between the PV panels and the batteries
Isc [A] 9.43 8.21 3.8
P m [W] 280 200 60
or the load to control the output power from PV system and the
V m [V] 31.5 26.3 17.1 operating state of DC-DC converter depends on the duty cycle
Ns [cells] 60 54 36 changed by the controller.
Ki 0.053%/C 0.00318A/C 0.065%/C PID controller is used to achieve a good performance of DC-DC
kV 0.31%/C 0.123 V/C 0.08 V/C
converter. The controller parameters should be of an optimized
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Table 4
Comparison among optimal single-diode PV.

Method Iteration [25] GA [24] WOA [26] FPA WCA

Iph (A) 8.214 8.213 8.28 8.22 8.293
RP (X) 415.405 547.91 424.22 1338 596.3325
Rs (X) 0.221 0.232 0.2815 0.245 0.233
n 1.3 1.29 1.29 1.4828 1.29
I0 (A) 9.825e8 8.789e8 8.558e8 9.415e7 8.852e08
RMS Error 0.003366503 0.003364394 0.002692783 0.002506829 0.003366503

value, so that the FPA and WCA optimization techniques can be
used to get the optimized parameters of the controller.
DC-DC Boost converters are designed and simulated to use the
FOPI controller, which improves the total system efficiency. The
main purpose of a DC-DC converter adjusts an input source volt-
age, elements, and load current to maintain a constant output volt-
age. The design aims to maximize conversion efficiency, reduce
harmonic distortions, and boost the power factor.
The basic Boost Converter is fitted with a FOPI controller and
evaluated in the MATLAB-Simulink setting to enhance voltage reg-
ulation. In terms of adjustments in input voltage, the converter’s
current closed-loop architecture keeps constant voltage, which sig-
nificantly reduces overshoot, increasing the converter’s
performance.
By controlling the FOPI controller, the PV system increases the
value of peak power, current, and high voltage. The results show
the difference between the current design and the proposed
design.
6. Result and discussion
This part is divided into two sections the first section represents
the results of obtaining the five parameter model and the second
section represents the tuning of the PI and the effect of using FOPI.
6.1. Proposed PV model
FPA and WCA are used to minimize the error of the objective
function with 1000 iteration and 30 search agents. The conver-
gence curve is smooth, and the minimum value of the error will
be approximately equal to zero.
A reasonable comparison is made to investigate the validity of
these optimum parameters of the proposed SD model based on
FPA and WCA with different techniques such as iteration technique
[25], the GA technique [24],and the WOA technique [26]. These
findings show that the unknown parameters of PV models using

Fig. 3. On state position of the boost converter. Fig. 4. Off state of the boost converter.

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Fig. 5. Proposed block diagram of the PV system.

Fig. 6. Absolute current error of single diode model.

the FPA and WCA are within an acceptable ranges as shown in
Table 4. By comparing the simulation results with experimental
data for the PV module under different ambient conditions, the
favorability of the proposed method is demonstrated and tested.
For the verification of the FPA and WCA based PV model, the
absolute current error of the proposed PV model regarding the
experimental data is compared with that obtained by using the
iterations-based PV model [25], a MATLAB PV model [64], and
the WOA-based PV [26] from Eq. 11, as shown in Fig. 6 and Table 4.
It can be observed that the error of the FPA based PV model is
within an acceptable range as shown in Table 5.
1900
error ¼ ðImodel  Idatasheet Þ=Idatasheet : ð11Þ
The KC200GT PV module experimental [58] results at five irradiate
level points (1000, 800, 600, 400, and 200 W/m2) showing the cur-
rent versus the voltage (I-V) curves and the power versus the volt-
age (PV) curves. The IV and PV curves of the proposed FPA PV
models are well matched to the corresponding study, which indi-
cates that the proposed PV model is precise and accurate.
Also, the PV model is validated by sketching the V-I and P-V
curves of KC200GT system at different conditions on MATLAB,
and compare the results with the real data from the real systems.
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al.
Table 5
PV curve for different PV models.
Figs. 7(a) and (c) show P-V and V-I curves respectively at constant
temperature (T = 25°C) and various values of irradiance (G). Figs. 7
(b) and (d) show P-V and V-I curves respectively at various temper-
ature and constant irradiance (G = 1000 W=m2 ).
6.2. Simulation of different types of controllers
In order to regularly transfer the energy from the solar panels to
the output from the converter, the converter uses one or more
energy storage elements, depending on their topology, like induc-
tors, capacitors or transformers. The energy transfer results in
changes in the DC voltage value relative to the input voltage of
the converter.
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Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906
In addition, a PWM circuit and a sensor circuit are used in the
control part of the circuit. The PWM is used to adjust the control
MOSFET from ON to OFF. The goal is to preserve an output voltage
equivalent to the reference voltage, regardless of irregularities or
partial variations.
The first step is to use a traditional PID controller whose main
characteristics are the reduction of the steady-state error and the
enhancement of the dynamic performance. The second level con-
tains a fractional-order control system that tracks and adjusts the
function of the standard controller. Fractional order controller
(FOPID) is applied to boost system control efficiency. Apart from
the need for a designed controller to get Kp, Ki and Kd along with
designing orders for integral and derivatives. The principal aim is
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906

Table 6
System response with different types of controllers for type1 of irradiation.

1902
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al.
Fig. 7. (a) P-V Curve at various irradiances (b) P-V Curve at various temperatures (c) V-I Curve at various irradiances. (d) V-I Curve at various temperatures.
designing the maximum power point tracking on the basis of
FOPID and the analysis of the FOPID system and PID controller with
the efficiency of maximum power point tracking.
The architecture requirements of the DC-DC Boost Converter sug-
gested for simulation purposes are considered in this paper,where
input voltages Vi = 60 V; switching frequency, fs = 10 kHz; induc-
tance L = 2mH; capacitance; C = 100lF; capacitance resistance
equivalent, and RL =20 X, respectively. For simulation reasons, the
real output voltage Vout and its comparison Vref value are fed into
the input control system. The voltage e(t), which is obtained, is pro-
cessed by the FOPI controller proposed.
A full dynamic boost converter model has been simulated with
the Matlab setting to validate the converter’s response. The perfor-
mance is performed by the FPA and WCA. The method is used to
solve the problem of optimization and to find an optimum value of
controller parameters. Controller parameter optimization is per-
formed by evaluating the objective function as specified in this
paper.
This design consists of the mathematical model of a boost con-
verter and a PID controller, attached to the solar system by the
variable solar irradiance and the temperature is estimated to be
25 °C.The system response is shown in Table 6, 7.
7. Comparative study
7.1. MPPT-based without controller simulation
Since solar irradiance levels increase and decrease over time,
the system response without a controller does not give a continu-
ous high level of efficiency. The RMS value of the error without the
controller of the system is 0.3342.
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Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906
7.2. MPPT-based PID controller simulation
Many types of controllers such as PI, PID and PD arestudied and
found that type of PI controller gives their best response as shown
in Table 6, 7 so PI controller simulation result with Kp = 0.01,
Ki = 0.5 is studied.
Since solar irradiance levels increase and decrease over time,
the PI controller does not give a continuous high level of efficiency.
The RMS value of the error for the system with PI controller is
0.1028.
7.3. MPPT-based FOPI controller simulation based on FPA
FOPI controller simulation result with Kp = 0.0121, Ki = 1.12,
l = 1.52 is studied. The FOPI gives greater stability and an ability
for the dynamic properties of the control system to be better
adapted.
The solar irradiation increases or decreases with time, and the
efficiency is constant. FOPI has good robustness as a fractional-
order controller. A FOPI controller can improve the dynamic con-
trol system. FOPI controls are less sensitive to parameter change
of the control system, as the two extra degrees of freedom allow
for a better dynamic control system adjustment. The RMS value
of the error for the system with FOPI controller is 0.05992.
7.4. MPPT-based FOPI controller simulation based on WCA
FOPI controller simulation result with Kp = 0.015, Ki = 0.9,
l = 1.62 was studied. FOPI controls are less sensitive to parameter
change of the control system, as the two extra degrees of freedom
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906

Table 7
System response with different types of controllers for type1 of irradiation.

allow for a better dynamic control system adjustment. The RMS (RMS) value of an objective feature that can achieve the most of
value of the error for the system with FOPI controller is 0.06892. system requirements.

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 Xn 2
RMSE ¼ ðVref  VoÞ ð12Þ
7.5. Comparison of results n i¼1

The objective function as written in Eq. 12 is to find the best where Vo is the output voltage, Vref predicted values of a variable
value for the controller parameters to minimize a root mean square and n the number of observations available for analysis.
1904
A.T. Mohamed, M.F. Mahmoud, R.A. Swief et al.
Table 6, 7 show that the efficiency of MPPT in FOPI is better than
the classical PI controller at different types of irradiance. FOPI can
effectively enhance the rejection of probable disturbances in the
input voltage. It has also been observed that when the FOPI con-
troller is applied, the voltage is better controlled. FOPI reduces
the ripples of the output voltage and the output current at different
types of irradiance as shown in Table 6, 7.
8. Conclusion
The proposed model under study demonstrated an encouraging
performance in two aspects, which were finding the optimal
designing parameters for the single diode PV model, and obtaining
the optimal parameters for the FOPI controller. The FPA and the
WCA were utilized to get the optimal parameters considering dif-
ferent objectives. The first objective was to minimize the error
between calculated values from the proposed model and the actual
data and the second objective was to minimize the RMSE. FPA
proved its power over the WCA implantation for both objectives.
This paper also provided the DC-DC boost converter study that
may be used to raise the input voltage depending on the load
requirement for renewable energy applications. FOPI showed
promising performance in controlling the system under study, try-
ing to track the maximum power point.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This paper is based upon work supported by Science, Technology
and Innovation Funding Authority (STIFA) under grant (25977).
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Ahmed T. Mohamed received his B.Sc. in 2018, from
Electrical power engineering, Fayoum University and
Master student in Microelectronics System Design
(MSD), Nile University. Giza. Currently, he is a teaching
assistant at Nile University. His research interests
include PV modeling, Fractional-order circuits and
Control.
Mahmoud F. Mahmoud received his B.Sc. in 2018, from
Electrical power engineering, Fayoum University and
Master student in Microelectronics System Design
(MSD), Nile University. Giza. Currently, he is a teaching
assistant at Nile University. His research interests
include PV modeling, Fractional-order circuits and
Control.
1906
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 1895–1906
R.A. Swief got her B.Sc, M.Sc, and PhD from Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt on 1998, 2004, and 2010
respectively. PhD was in the area of Deregulated market
and price load market relations. Contributed in many
paper nationally and internationally. She has many
publications in local and international conferences.
Supervised many PhD and Master degrees in the areas
of Smart grid, Protection, Deregulated market and
Renewable Energy. Her Fields of Interests lie in Power
System Analysis, Planning, and Renewable Energy.
Lobna A. Said (Senior Member IEEE 2020) is a full-time
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and
Applied Science and the Nano-Electronics Integrated
System Research Center (NISC), Nile University (NU).
She received the B.Sc.,the M.Sc, and the Ph.D. degrees in
electronics and communications from Cairo University,
Egypt, in 2007, 2011, and 2016, respectively. She has
over 100 publications distributed between high-impact
journals, conferences, and book chapters. She was
involved in many research grants as a Senior
Researcher/ Member or as a Co-PI from different
national and international organizations. Her research
interests are interdisciplinary, including system modelling, control techniques,
optimization techniques, analog and digital integrated circuits, fractional-order
circuits and systems, non-linear analysis, and chaos theory. She has received the
Recognized Reviewer Award from many international journals. She is the Vice-Chair
of research activities at the IEEE Computational Intelligence Egypt Chapter. She has
received the Excellence Award from the Center forthe Development of Higher
education and Research in 2016. She is the Winner of Dr. Hazem Ezzat Prize forthe
outstanding researcher, NU 2019. She is one of the top 10 researchers at NU forthe
year 2018–2019. Recently, she was selected as a member of the Egyptian Young
Academy of Sciences (EYAS) to empower and encourage young Egyptian scientists
in science and technology and build knowledge-based societies. In 2020, she was
selected to be an affiliate member of the African Academy of Science (AAS). In 2020,
she was also selected to be Member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sci-
ences and Humanities (AGYA). Additionally, She is in the technical program com-
mittee for many International Conferences. She has received The State
Encouragement Award 2019. She is the Co President of the Egyptian Young Acad-
emy of Sciences (EYAS).
Ahmed G. Radwan (SM’12) was the Former Director of
the Nanoelectronics Integrated Systems Center (NISC),
Nile University, and the Technical Center for Career
Development (TCCD), Cairo University. He was a Visit-
ing Professorwiththe Computational Electromagnetic
Laboratory (CEL), Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department (ECE), McMaster University, Canada, from
2008 to 2009. He was with the King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology (KAUST), from 2009 to 2011.
He has over 345 papers, h-index 44, and over 5900
citations based on Scopus database. He is the Co-
Inventor of six U.S. patents. He has authored or coau-
thored over several international books and 26-chapterbooks. He has received
many research grants as a Principle Investigator (PI), the CO-PI, or a Consultant from
different national/international organizations. His research interests include inter-
disciplinary concepts between mathematics and engineering applications such as
fractional-ordersystems, bifurcation, chaos, memristor, and encryption. Recently,
he has selected as an MC Observer to COST Action CA15225, and a member of the
Applied Science Research Council, Specialized Scientific Councils (SSC), and the
National Committee of Mathematics, ASRT, Egypt. Previously, he was selected as a
member of the first scientific council of the Egyptian Young Academy of Sciences
(EYAS) and the first scientific council of the Egyptian Center forthe Advancement of
Science, Technology, and Innovation (ECASTI) to empower and encourage Egyptian
young scientists in science and technology and build knowledge-based societies. He
has received the State Achievements Award for research in mathematical sciences,
in 2012, the Cairo University Achievements Award for research in engineering
sciences, in 2013, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in basic
sciences, in 2015, the Cairo University Excellence Award for research in engineering
sciences, in 2016, and the Best Researcher Awards from Nile University, in 2015 and
2016. He has organized many special sessions, and he serves on the Technical
Program Committee (TPC) of several international conferences. He was invited to be
a Lead/Guest Editor of different prestigious international journals.