Maximum Power Point Tracking using Model Predictive Control of a flyback converter for photovoltaic applications

Due to the variable, stochastic behavior of the solar energy resource, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) is required to ensure continuous operation at the maximum power point to generate the most electrical energy. This paper presents a Model Predictive Control (MPC) MPPT technique. Extracting the maximum power from PV systems has been widely investigated within the literature; the main contribution of this paper is improvement of the Perturb and Observe (P&O) method through a fixed step predictive control under measured fast solar radiation variation. The proposed predictive control to achieve Maximum Power Point (MPP) speeds up the control loop since it predicts error before the switching signal is applied to the flyback DC/DC converter. Comparing the developed technique to the conventional P&O method indicates significant improvement in PV system performance. The proposed MPC-MPPT technique for a flyback converter is implemented using the dSpace CP 1103.