Verification of Perturbation and Observation Algorithm
for Photo-Voltaic MPPT Systems Using Matlab/Simulink
Ghulam Farid and Umair Shoukat
Department of Electrical Engineering
University College of Engineering and Technology
Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
farid.anjum@yahoo.com
Abstract - Solar modules present environment friendly source
of energy. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is used to
extract maximum energy from the solar modules. According to
maximum power transfer theorem, maximum amount of power is
delivered when the load impedance matches the output impedance
of solar module. A DC-DC boost converter is used to match the
impedance of the load and solar module by changing its duty
cycle through pulse width modulation (PWM). Point where
impedance matches is named as peak operating point (POP) and
process of tracking this point is called maximum power point
tracking (MPPT). Maximum power operating point (MPOP)
normally depends upon radiations of sun, load current and
temperature of the solar module. In this paper, optimization of
Perturbation and Observation (P&O) Algorithm is verified for
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system using
Matlab/Simulink environment.
Index Terms - MPPT, POP, MPOP, perturbation and observation
algorithm, solar module.
I. INTRODUCTION
Every solar module holds a particular optimal operating
point termed as maximum power operating point (MPOP) or
peak operating point (POP) where solar module generates
maximum possible power. This point is dependent on the sun
radiations and cell temperature and varies with respect to these
parameters. [1] It's obvious that both parameters do not remain
constant during the whole day. Sometimes cloudy weather
changes the conditions very abruptly and MPOP is also
changed accordingly. In this way solar module offers variable
source impedance in case if we keep load impedance constant.
Now if the load impedance is not kept constant while the solar
output voltage and output current values are assumed to be
constant at a particular moment, again we need impedance
matching. Similarly we need impedance matching in third case,
when both source and load impedances are variable. This
matching yields maximum possible power from solar modules
and process of tracking this impedance matching point is
called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). There are
number of proposed algorithms out there to track MPOP. Each
holds its own pros and cons. Two main algorithms most widely
used are perturbation and observation (P&O) algorithm [2] [7]
and incremental conductance algorithm. [2] With the
development of environment friendly sources of energy, world
is stepping towards such expedient energy sources gradually.
In recent years, power generation from solar modules has been
Ali Ehsan and Muhammad Haseeb
Department of Electrical Engineering
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology,
Sahiwal, Pakistan
aliehsan369@hotmail.com
increased to many folds and this enhanced use of solar energy
has made MPPT much more important. MPPT system
developed in this paper uses perturbation and observation
algorithm as it requires less computational power and is quite
easy to implement. [1] [2]. Matlab/Simulink environment is
used to develop the MPPT system and graphical analysis is
presented in the subsequent sections of this paper which
verifies the correctness of perturbation and observation
algorithm.
II. CHARACTERISTIC CURVES OF SOLAR MODULE
Fig. 1 shows voltage versus current (V-I) curve of solar
module in blue colour. A solar module can produce power at
point anywhere on the characteristics curve of current and
voltage, and this point is said operating point of module. If the
source and load impedances are not matched this will not be a
peak operating point (POP) where it can produce maximum
power. The coordinates of operating point are operating
voltage and operating current of the solar module. The output
power of the solar module is product of operating voltage and
operating current. It can be seen from the V-I curve that at
knee point, area under the curve will be maximum so this point
gives maximum power. This distinctive point at knee of the V-
I curve is said peak operating point (POP). The green curve in
Fig. 1 shows voltage versus power (V-P) and is overlaid on the
V-I curve to show that at POP, the power of solar module is
maximum. Normally V-P curve can be divided into three parts.
A. Left part
In left part, dp/dv >0
B. Middle part
At middle point, dp/dv =0
C. Right part
In right part, dp/dv <0
In Fig.2 and Fig.3, the whole day behaviour of solar V-I and
V-P curves is shown. One can get how POP is varied in these
curves that need to be tracked at every moment. Curves shown
in Figs. 2 and 3 possess some unusual values at some points;
these unusual values were the result of abruptly changing sun
irradiance due to cloudy weather as these curves were taken
from real time values of solar module to observe the physical
behaviour. This module gives 19.8V open circuit voltage and
4.9A short circuit current. When given 1000 W/m2 irradiance
level, it produces 72 W power.
 5 80
III. PERTURBATION AND OBSERVATION ALGORITHM
dp/dv=0 dp/dv<0 It is the simplest algorithm and is deployed in embedded
applications due to its fewer instructions. It is type of hill
Current
4 60 climbing methods and possesses good performance during
Power
steady state phase. [4][5][6]. Also it is quite easy to
implement.[1] Though it has some draw backs under rapidly
dp/dv>0
Current

Power
changing weather conditions but still very useful in particular
3 40
cases. [3] As shown in Fig. 1 that at knee point the power
generated is maximum so this point must be accurately tracked
by the algorithm and then to stay at this point is the key
2 20 responsibility of the algorithm. At the knee point, change in
power with respect change in voltage is zero (dp/dv=0). While
at left of knee point dp/dv>0 and it is dp/dv<0 at the right.
Flow chart of perturbation and observation algorithm is shown
1 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 in Fig. 4. This algorithm takes voltage and current values from
Voltage solar module after each sampling time interval and calculates
Fig. 1 V-I, V-P curves
the instantaneous power generated by the module. It compares
this instantaneous power value with previous power value and
5 08 AM
09 AM
decides whether the duty cycle should be increased or
AM
4.5
10 AM
AM
decreased.
11 AM
AM
12 AM
4 AM
01 PM
AM
02 PM
PM
3.5 03 PM
PM
04 PM
PM
05 PM
Current

3 PM
PM
2.5

1.5

0.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Voltage
Fig. 2 V-I curves showing whole day variations

80
08 AM
0
70 09 AM
10 AM
0 11 AM
60
12 AM
0 01 PM
50 02 PM
03 PM
Power

0
40 04 PM
05 PM
0
30

0
20

0
Fig. 4 Perturbation and Observation (P&O) algorithm
10

0
IV. BOOST CONVERTER
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 The main entity that is used in the MPPT system is boost
Voltage
0 converter. When we connect load across the output of solar
Fig. 3 V-P curves showing whole day variations
module it is observed that for different amount of loads a solar
module delivers different amount of power under the same
insolation and temperature. It’s all right for a particular load
which gets maximum possible power from the solar module V. SIMULINK BASED MPPT SETUP
due to impedance matching of load and source, but what to do
Fig. 8 shows the experimental setup designed in Simulink
with the rest of the values of load? So here is a need of voltage
environment to prove the validation of perturbation and
regulation. Normally a boost converter is used to regulate the
observation algorithm. There are five main entities in this
solar module’s output voltage so that we can get optimal
setup.
values of solar voltage and solar current. These optimal values
A. Solar Module
of voltage and current will generate solar impedance value that
Solar module is basically constructed from the basic solar
will match the load impedance value hence forcing solar
cell unit provided in Simscape library of Simulink. It has three
module to generate maximum power. In Table No.1, some
ports. One input port for irradiance and two output ports, one
values are calculated from the Simulink model of solar module.
is positive terminal of solar cell and second is negative
This model has open circuit voltage equal to 21 Volts and
terminal. Solar module generates maximum possible power at
short circuit current equal to 7.34 Amperes. It generates
the standard irradiance value of 1000 W/m2.
maximum power 118.84 W at 17.58 V and 6.76 A. Table
shows power produced by the solar module for different values
of load. It is quite obvious that when load is 2.6 Ohm, the
power produced is maximum and solar voltage V1 is equal to
the boost voltage V2 and no step up operation is required. For
the rest values of load we need to boost up the solar voltage up
to the values as indicated in 5th column. One interesting thing
to note is that, above and below the darkened row solar voltage
V1 is less than the boost voltage V2 which clearly indicates
that each time we need boost operation. Fig. 6 Simulink library model of a solar cell
TABLE I
BOOST CONVERTER CALCULATIONS
B. P&O Algorithm Block
This block holds the control law for switching the boost
Requirement
Voltage (V1)

Voltage (V2)
Load (Ohm)

Solar Power

converter. Perturbation and Observation algorithm can be

Difference
Amperes

(V2-V1)

Status
Boost

Boost
Solar

Solar

implemented through State Flow logic library or Simulink

(A)

(P)

based user defined function. This block takes the instantaneous

values of voltage and current from the solar module then
implements the control logic to control the duty cycle in order
0.2 7.34 1.468 10.775 4.87524 3.40724 Yes to track the peak operating point.
0.6 7.34 4.404 32.325 8.44417 4.04017 Yes C. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Block
1 7.34 7.340 53.875 10.9013 3.56137 Yes This block takes the duty cycle value from the algorithm
1.4 7.337 10.27 75.350 12.8986 2.62868 Yes and then it is converted into a PWM signal that switches the
1.8 7.318 13.17 96.378 14.6257 1.45573 Yes
boost converter. This block is integrated with “P&O Algorithm
Block” in complete MPPT system design figure.
2.2 7.184 15.80 113.50 16.1693 0.36935 Yes
2.6 6.760 17.58 118.84 17.58 0 No
3 6.173 18.52 114.32 18.8817 0.36173 Yes
3.4 5.604 19.50 109.27 20.1011 0.60114 Yes
3.8 5.104 19.40 99.017 21.2506 1.85069 Yes
4 4.880 19.52 95.257 21.8027 2.28275 Yes

Fig. 5 shows the boost converter model used for the voltage
regulation in the simulation.

Fig. 7 PWM signal generation

Fig. 5 Simulink model of boost converter
D. Boost Converter
This block gets the pulse width modulated (PWM) signal
from the algorithmic unit and regulates the output voltage. At
input side it is connected to the solar module while output side
is connected with load.
E. Load
This block is masked and offers variable resistance. One
can slide the load resistance up to desired value.
 Fig. 8 Complete MPPT system design in Simulink environment

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS tracked the POP every time successfully using the perturbation
and observation (P&O) algorithm. Fig. 12 shows the
Results generated after running the simulation of designed
corresponding values of V-I for same irradiance levels
MPPT system in Simulink are displayed in this section. Fig. 9
displayed in Fig. 11. These results validate the usefulness of
shows power generated by the solar module and amount of
P&O algorithm.
power that is delivered to the load. It is quite obvious from the
figure that after reaching at maximum power generation point
the designed system maintained that generation that is about
118.80 Watt in this case. In this case the irradiance level is
kept 1000 W/m2. Fig. 10 shows the variation of solar module
output volatge and output current. After reaching the peak Maximum power from solar
operating point the voltage and current values become
Power

module is achieved and is

stabilized. Figs. 11 and 12 show the simulated results for maintained
different irradiance levels. In Fig. 11, at 600 W/m2 MPPT
system initially tracked the peak operating point and stayed at
the peak until irradiance level remained constant. As the
irradiance level jumped to 700 W/m2, MPPT system abruptly
tracked the new peak operating point (POP) and then forced
the solar module to stay at this point until further irradiance Time
change occurred. Similarly same phenomenon occurred for the Fig. 9 Power generated by solar module (Black), power delivered
further values of irradiance and designed MPPT system to load (Blue)
 under different irradiance levels. Moreover it showed quite
After reaching at POP
better performance under steady state conditions.
voltage is stabilized ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Current, Voltage

For this research I acknowledge the supervision of Dr.

Abid Javed for giving his valuable suggestions, technical
support and making this study more fertile.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Sera, T. Kerekes, and R.Teodeorescu, “Improved MPPT method for
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[2] Hohm D.P., Ropp M.E., “Comparative Study of Maximum Power
Point Tracking Algorithms Using an Experimental, Programmable,
Time Maximum Power Point Tracking Test Bed”. Photovoltaic Specialists
Fig. 10 Solar module output voltage and current Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE 15-22
Sept. 2000, pp. 1699 – 1702.
[3] Brambilla A., Gambarara M., Garutti A., Ronchi F. “New approach to
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at 1000 watt/m2 Electronics Specialists Conference, 1999. PESC 99. 30th Annual IEEE
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[6] N .Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and M.Vitelli,“Perturb and Observe
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20 [7] Enslin, J. H. R. and Snyman, D. B., “Simplified Feed-Forward Control
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0
0 5 10 15 20 25 Vol.1, pp. 548-553 (1992).
Voltage
Fig. 11 Tracking of peak operating point (POP) at different irradiance levels
(Voltage Vs Power curve)

5
Current

3 POP

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Voltage
Fig. 12 Tracking of peak operating point (POP) at different irradiance levels
(Voltage Vs Current curve)

VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper Matlab/Simulink based MPPT system has
been developed that employs P&O algorithm to track the peak
operating point. Results obtained from the designed system
have verified that P&O algorithm tracked the POP successfully