• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2007

In this paper, a simple control method for two-stage utility grid-connected photovoltaic power conditioning systems (PCS) is proposed. This approach enables maximum power point (MPP) tracking control with post-stage inverter current information instead of calculating solar array power, which significantly simplifies the controller and the sensor. Furthermore, there is no feedback loop in the pre-stage converter to control the solar array voltage or current because the MPP tracker drives the converter switch duty cycle. This simple PCS control strategy can reduce the cost and size, and can be utilized with a low cost digital processor. For verification of the proposed control strategy, a 2.5kW two-stage photovoltaic grid-connected PCS hardware which consists of a boost converter cascaded with a single-phase inverter was built and tested.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.2487-2494
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• 2012

In this paper, a thermal energy harvesting circuit with MPPT control is designed. MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control function is implemented using the linear relationship between the open-circuit voltage of a thermoelectric generator(TEG) and its MPP voltage. The designed MPPT control circuit traces the maximum power point by periodically sampling the open circuit voltage of a TEG, makes the reference voltages using sampled voltage and delivers the maximum available power to load. Simulation results show that the maximum power efficiency of the designed circuit is 94%. The proposed thermal energy harvesting circuit is designed with $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process, and the chip area except PAD is $1168.7{\mu}m{\times}541.3{\mu}m$.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.164-171
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• 2012

Variable step size maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) are widely used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to extract the peak array power which depends on solar irradiation and array temperature. One essential factor which judges system dynamics and steady state performances is the scaling factor (N), which is used to update the controlling equation in the tracking algorithm to determine a new duty cycle. This paper proposes a novel stability study of variable step size incremental resistance maximum power point tracking (INR MPPT). The main contribution of this analysis appears when developing the overall small signal model of the PV system. Therefore, by using linear control theory, the boundary value of the scaling factor can be determined. The theoretical analysis and the design principle of the proposed stability analysis have been validated using MATLAB simulations, and experimentally using a fixed point digital signal processor (TMS320F2808).

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1805-1818
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• 2018

This paper proposes a novel hybrid maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm combining a Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and the conventional Perturb & Observation (P&O) to track/extract the highest amount of power from a solar photovoltaic (SPV) system working under partial shading conditions (PSCs). The proposed hybrid algorithm is based on a WOA which predicts the initial global peak (GP) and is followed by P&O in the final stage to achieve a quicker convergence to a GP. Thus, this hybrid algorithm overcomes the computational burden encountered in a standalone WOA, grey wolf optimization (GWO) and hybrid GWO reported in the literature. The conventional algorithm searches for the maximum power point (MPP) in the predicted region by the WOA. The proposed MPPT technique is modelled and simulated using MATLAB/Simulink for simulating an environment to check its effectiveness in accurately tracking the MPP during the GP region. This hybrid algorithm is compared with a standalone WOA, GWO and hybrid GWO. From the simulating results, it is shown that the proposed algorithm offers high tracking performance and that it increases the output power level of a SPV system under partial shading. The algorithm also verified experimentally on various PSCs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.47-58
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• 2011

This paper proposes the optimal current detect(OCD) maximum power point tracking(MPPT) control of photovoltaic(PV) system for robust with environment changing. The output characteristics of the solar cell is a nonlinear and affected by a temperature, the solar radiation and temperature. Conventional MPPT control methods are tracked the maximum power point by constant incremental value. So these methods are slow the response speed and generated the vibration in steady state and cannot track the MPP in environment condition changing. And power loss is generated because of the self-excitation vibration in MPP region. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the novel control algorithm. Proposed algorithm is detected the optimal current in two control region using the output power and current curve. Detected current is used the converter switching for tracking the MPP. Proposed algorithm is compared output power error to conventional algorithm with radiation and temperature changing. In addition, the validity of the algorithm is proved through the output error response characteristics.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2020

Solar power generation systems require maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control to operate PV panels at their maximum power point (MPP). Most conventional MPPT algorithms are based on the slope-tracking concept. A typical slope-tracking method is the perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm. The P&O algorithm measures the current and voltage of a PV panel to find the operating point of the voltage at which the calculated power is maximized. However, the measurement error of the sensor causes irregularity in the calculation of the generated power and voltage control. This irregularity leads to the problem of not finding the correct MPP operating point. In this work, the power output of a PV panel based on the P&O algorithm is simulated by considering the insolation profiles from typical clear and cloudy weather conditions and the errors of current and voltage sensors. Simulation analysis suggests the optimal control period and perturbation voltage of MPPT to maximize its target efficiency under real weather conditions with sensor tolerance.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1447-1453
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• 2014

This paper proposes the new method based on the availability of three points measurement and convexity of photovoltaic (PV) curve characteristic at the maximum power point (MPP). In general, the MPP tracking (MPPT) function is the important part of all PV systems due to their power-voltage (P-V) characteristics related with weather conditions. Then, the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and low pass filter (LPF) are required to measure the voltage and current for MPPT by the digital controller, which is used to implement the PV power conditioning system (PCS). The measurement and quantization error due to rounding or truncation in ADC and the delay of LPF might degrade the reliability of MPPT. To overcome this limitation, the proposed method is proposed while improving the performances in both steady-state and dynamic responses based on the detailed investigation of its properties for availability and convexity. The performances of proposed method are evaluated with the several case studies by the PSCAD/EMTDC$^{(R)}$ simulation. Then, the experimental results are given to verify its feasibility in real-time.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.299-303
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• 2011

This paper proposes a novel sensorless maximum power point tracking (11PPT) algorithm for PV systems. The method is based on dividing the operating time into several intervals in which the PV terminals are short circuited in one interval and the calculated short-current of the PV is obtained and used to determine the optimum operating point where the maximum output power can be obtained. The proposed MPPT algorithm has been introduced into a current-controlled boost converter whose duty ratio is controlled to the maintain MPP condition. The same sequence is then repeated regularly capturing the PV maximum power. The main advantage of this method is eliminating the current sensor. Meanwhile, this MPPT algorithm reduces the power oscillations around the peak power point which occurs with perturbation and observation algorithms. In addition, the total cost will decrease by removing the current sensor from the PV side. Finally, simulation results confirm the accuracy of the proposed method.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.201-209
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• 2015

This paper describes a battery charger using photovoltaic energy harvesting with MPPT control. The proposed circuit harvests maximum power from a PV(photovoltaic) cell by employing MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control and charges an external battery with the harvested energy. The charging state of the battery is controlled according to the signals from a battery management circuit. The MPPT control is implemented using linear relationship between the open-circuit voltage of a PV cell and its MPP voltage such that a pilot PV cell can track the MPP of a main PV cell in real time. The proposed circuit is designed in a $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process technology and its functionality has been verified through extensive simulations. The maximum efficiency of the designed entire system is 86.2% and the chip area including pads is $1.35mm{\times}1.2mm$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.397-400
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• 2015

In this paper a solar energy harvesting system with low-cost MPPT control for low duty-cycled sensor nodes is proposed. The targeted applications are environment, structure monitoring sensor nodes that are not required successively to operate, and MPPT(Maximum Power point Tracking) control using simple circuits is low-cost differently than existing MPPT control. The proposed MPPT control is implemented using linear relationship between the open-circuit voltage of a solar cell. The designed MPPT circuit traces the maximum power point by sampling periodically the open circuit voltage of the solar cell and delivers the maximum available power to the load. The proposed circuit is designed in 0.35um CMOS process. The designed chip area is $975um{\times}1025um$ including pads. Measured results show that the designed system can track the MPP voltage by sampling periodically the open circuit voltage of solar cell.