A MATLAB Based Comparative Study between Single and Hybrid MPPT Techniques for Photovoltaic Systems

It is essential to identify the changing maximum available power provided by the Photovoltaic (PV) array under different weather conditions in order to enhance system efficiency by driving the PV system to work at that maximum power point. Hence, it is mandatory to implement a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) system to maintain optimum power operation at all irradiance levels and at different temperatures. Many MPPT techniques were developed and implemented in literature. These techniques differ in their characteristics and performance such as accuracy, convergence speed, ease of hardware implementation, PV dependency, number of required sensors and their ability to track the Global Maximum Power Point (GMPP) under partial shading conditions. Single MPPT techniques were first presented in literature; however, working on their own, they failed in achieving some of the desired traits mentioned earlier. Hence the merge of two single MPPT techniques in order to add the advantages of each algorithm and eliminate their drawbacks. A lot of effort was put in literature to compare and survey MPPT algorithms in general. Nevertheless, very little literature is available that provides a comparison between Hybrid MPPT techniques and the single ones. This work does so and in simulation, presenting a MATLAB based study that compares single MPPT techniques with their Hybrid combinations in order to validate through simulation results the superior performance of Hybrid MPPT techniques over its single counterparts MPPT techniques.