A comparative study of MPPT algorithms for standalone PV systems under RCIC

A comparative study between frequently used maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms and a proposed Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) based MPPT algorithm under rapidly changing insolation condition (RCIC) is presented in this paper. The comparison shows that the proposed LS-SVM based MPPT algorithm offers some advantages over existing MPPT algorithms under RCIC, namely elimination of ripples in the output voltage of a PV solar system as well as improved tracking accuracy. The algorithms have been tested through simulation studies carried out on real data recorded by the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. The study compares the performances of LS-SVM, P&O and IncCond.