(a)

(b)
Fig.1 Photovoltaic array characteristics
(a) Maximum power varies with different insolation at normal
temperature(at 2)
(b)Maximum power varies with different cell temperature at the
same insolation (1000W/m
2
)
An Intelligent Fuzzy Method for MPPT of Photovoltaic arrays
Guohui Zeng, Qizhong Liu
College of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Shanghai University of Engineering Science,
Shanghai, P. R. China 201620.
Email: coffee.zeng@gmail.com
AbstractAn intelligent fuzzy method for maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) systems is
presented in this paper. In this method, fuzzy inference process
can be finished by an equation with an adaptive factor instead
of fuzzy rules lookup table, which saves memory space and
accelerates operation process. It is simple to be implemented
on single chip. The availability and adjustability of this method
is validated by experiments using PV arrays, boost converter
and single-phase grid-connected inverter. The simulation and
experiment results showed its attractive features such as
simplicity, fast response, well dynamic performance and that it
can increase output power extracted from PV arrays.
Keywords-MPPT; PV; fuzzy inference;adaptive factor
I. INTRODUCTION
With the increasing demand on electric power and the
decreasing reserve of oil and coal, more and more countries
are paying great attention to sustainable energy such as wind
and solar energy. Although solar energy is abundant and free
of cost, the high initial investment on PV systems and non-
linearity of PV cell output characteristic counteract its wide
commercialization. The most important issues for grid-tied
PV systems to gain wide acceptance are low cost, high
efficiency and good output performance.
The PV array has an optimum operating point to
generate the maximum power under some insolation level at
some temperature, showed as in Fig.1. To draw maximum
power from PV arrays, MPPT controller is required in a
stand-alone or grid-connected PV system. However, the
output characteristic of PV arrays is nonlinear. The
generating power varies with different solar insolation level
and different cell temperature. Therefore, it is not easy to
track the maximum power point of the PV cell quickly and
effectively in the real application. To solve this problem,
many tracking control methods have been proposed such as
constant voltage tracking (CVT), perturb and observe
algorithm (P&O), incremental conductance algorithm (ICA),
parasitic capacitance, hill climbing algorithm, neural
network, fuzzy logic control (FLC), and so on [1]-[6].
Among them, fuzzy logic control requires no mathematical
model, and it is easy to be implemented in real control
system. Both merits provide it with a promising application
in MPPT of PV arrays. However, fuzzy inference rules were
constructed based on experts knowledge or operation
experiences. Sometimes they cannot provide satisfied
control effect in the real operational system. On the other
hand, operating conditions of grid-connected PV system
varies with time and season. It is hard to get quick and
efficient tracking performance in transient conditions with
traditional fuzzy logic controller. Therefore, the fuzzy rules
should be adjusted on-line at real time to conform to
operating environment change.
In this paper, an improved intelligent fuzzy method for
MPPT of PV arrays is presented, which improves in the
following two stages. In the first stage, fuzzy inference
proceeds with an equation instead of fuzzy rules lookup table,
which saves memory space and accelerates inference process.
In the second stage, adaptive factor o applied to the
inference equation can change the weights of error E and
error change EC to control output U and modify fuzzy rules
on-line automatically to improve system control effect. There
2009 Second International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Design
978-0-7695-3865-5/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ISCID.2009.235
356
2009 Second International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Design
978-0-7695-3865-5/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ISCID.2009.235
356
Fig.2 The frame of grid-tied PV system
Fig.3 The configuration of the improved fuzzy logic
controller based on the presented method
are many good features for MPPT controller with the
presented method: low cost, quick-tracking, and no output
power fluctuation, etc. It is simple to be implemented on
single chip and need no memory space for fuzzy rules.
Moreover, adaptive factor o can improve system control
effect by adjusting parameters of fuzzy inference equation
on-line. The availability and adjustability of this method is
validated by experiments using PV arrays, boost converter
and single-phase grid-connected inverter.
II. THE INTELLIGENT FUZZY METHOD
Inference engine is the most important part of a fuzzy
controller. It decides fuzzy controllers effect and availability.
Generally, fuzzy inference is carried out with IfThen
rules or by looking up fuzzy rules table. Traditional fuzzy
logic control requires the expert knowledge of the process
operation for fuzzy inference rules setting. Fuzzy logic
control with fixed rules is inadequate in application where
the operating conditions change in a wide range and the
available expert knowledge is not reliable. Still, memory
space is necessary for these fuzzy controllers to save fuzzy
inference rules. At the same time, it is hard to adjust these
fuzzy rules with operating conditions after being established.
To improve the fuzzy logic control performance [7], an
equation is developed to replace these rules:
[( ) / 2] U INT E EC = + (1)
where the domains of error E , error change EC and control
output U can be expressed with integers:
{ } { } { } { , 1, , 1, 0,1, , } E EC U N N N = = = +
And the domain expressed with integers is equivalent to that
with fuzzy language variables. One example applied in this
paper is shown in the following:
{ 3, 2, 1, 0,1, 2,3} { , , , , , , } NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB ~
With (1), the domain of control output can be produced
directly from the domains of error E and error change EC .
For example:
IF E is NB AND EC is PS THEN U is NS .
which is equivalent to the following rule:
IF E is 3 AND EC is 1 THEN U is 1 .
which also means If operating point is far from maximum
power point at its right side and is moving to it slightly,
then decrease duty cycle slightly. Apparently, this result
can also be got from (1) quickly and easily. Of course,
tracking would be done more quickly if U is ( 2) NM or
U is ( 3) NB in this example.
From the above example, it is also known that results
from (1) sometimes may not be as good as we expect. The
weights of both input variables in the equation (1) are fixed
on 0.5. In fact, the perfect solution is that when E is big,
bigger U is expected to accelerate tracking process; while
when E is small and EC is big, smaller U is expected to
avoid over-tuning. To get this expected control performance,
adaptive factor o is introduced into (1) that can change the
weights of error E and error change EC to control output
U and modify fuzzy rules on-line automatically to improve
the system control effect. Therefore, an intelligent fuzzy
logic control method is presented in this paper, as expressed
in (2).
[ (1 ) ]
[0,1]
U INT E EC o o
o
= +

(2)
Adaptive factor o will change the weights of
error E and error change EC in determining the control
output U according to different operation conditions.
Compared to other conventional fuzzy control methods, the
presented one has the following merits while being applied
to MPPT of PV arrays:
(a) Simple calculating and easy implementation.
(b) Swift output response and quick tracking.
(c) No need of memory space for fuzzy rules lookup table.
(d) High control precision and good adjustability.
III. MPPT WITH THE INTELLIGENT FUZZY METHOD
A. The System Scheme
In order to explain the feasibility of MPPT with the
presented method, the grid-tied PV system is constructed
with boost DC DC and single phase DC AC , as
shown in Fig.2.
The controllers output changes PWM pulses to control
MOSFET switch [4]. MPPT can be finished by varying the
duty cycle of MOSFET in the boost converter.
357 357
Fig.4 Fuzzy control membership functions of error E , error
change EC and output U
Fig.5 The control output surface for one example
B. MPPT with the Intelligent Fuzzy Method
To track and extract maximum power from the PV arrays
at a given solar insolation level and cell temperature, a novel
fuzzy logic controller is proposed based on the intelligent
fuzzy logic method. It consists of four parts: fuzzification,
inference engine, defuzzification and adaptive set, as shown
in Fig.3.
1) Fuzzification:
The error E and error change EC can be calculated from
(3) and (4):
( ) ( 1)
( )
( ) ( 1)
ph ph
ph ph
P k P k
E k
i k i k

=

(3)
( ) ( ) ( 1) EC k E k E k = (4)
where ( )
ph
P k and ( )
ph
i k are the power and current of the
PV array, respectively. Therefore, ( ) E k is zero at the
maximum power point of PV array.
To simplify the control calculation, the values of
error E and error change EC can be normalized with (5)
before fuzzification process:
1,
/ ,| |
1,
s
X X
X X X X X
X X
-
- -
-
<

= <

>

(5)
where
max
X X
-
= ,so the scopes of error E and error
change EC will be [ 1,1] . Then the membership functions
expressed with triangular function can be shown in the Fig.4
2) Fuzzy Inference:
The control output can be gained by calculating (2) simply,
different from the conventional fuzzy logic controller, which
usually by looking up the fuzzy rules table. Apparently, it
can get the control output quickly and need no memory
space for the fuzzy rules table. Moreover, with adaptive
factor o , inference engine can produce abundant control
rules that comform to operating conditions. The control
output surface for one example is shown in Fig.5.
3)Defuzzification:
The output of this fuzzy controller is a fuzzy subset of
control. To get a nonfuzzy value of control, a defuzzfication
stage is necessary. Defuzzification for this system can be
performed by height method [5][8]. The nonfuzzy value of
control output can be gained with the height method simply
and quickly. The height defuzzification method can be done
with (6):
1 1
m m
k
k k
k k
du u e e
= =
=

(6)
With the output of controller, pulse generated from PWM
can switch MOSFET to change the duty cycle of the boost
DC DC . Then the PV array output voltage can be
adjusted to track the maximum power.
4) Adaptive Set:
One of the most important merits of the presented method
is that it can optimize the fuzzy inference rules on-line to
improve the system performance according to the operating
conditions. As we know, when the system is far away from
the maximum power point (MPP), a quick tracking would
be expected. On the other hand, when the system works in
the vicinity of MPP, stable output power without over-
tuning would be more valuable. Therefore, adaptive factor
o can be calculated with the following equation (7) on-line.
0 0
(1 )
E
N
o o o = + (7)
where
0
[ ,1] o o e ,
0
o and N can be set as any number. One
example here is 0.3 and 3. If
max
E E = , then 1 o = , error
E in (3) has the largest weight, and error can be eliminated
in the quickest way. On the other hand, if
0
o o = , o is the
smallest value (0.3) and error change EC has the largest
358 358
Fig.6 Simulation results depicting the change of Power, voltage and
current of PV array vs time
Fig.7 Output power generated by the systems adopting intelligent
FLC, traditional FLC and P& O respectively for a typical day in June.
weight (0.7), which prevents the system from over-tuning
and stabilizes the output power.
IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENT RESULTS
This presented method can be simulated with MATLAB
program [9]. The simulation results in Fig.6 showed that
output power of PV module could be maximized following
insolation change quickly. All devices of boost converter
and single-phase inverter are assumed to be ideal.
The presented method is simple and has also been
implemented in the MCU chip of PIC16C5X. Experiments
have been done using boost DC DC , 500W single phase
inverter and 12 PV modules from Topsolar. The main
characteristics of a PV module are indicated below
(1000W/m
2
at 2).
Product type: TSM-50(734x651x40mm)
Open circuit voltage: 21.7V
Short circuit current: 3.4A
Maximum power voltage: 17.5V
Maximum power current: 3.05A
Peak power: 50Wp
Output power generated by the system adopting the
presented method, conventional fuzzy control method and
Perturb & Observe respectively is recorded at different times
for a typical day in June in Shanghai, China, shown in Fig.7.
V. CONCLUSIONS
An intelligent fuzzy method for MPPT of PV arrays is
presented in this paper on the base of fuzzy logic control
algorithm. A quick tracking can be done by inference engine
expressed by equations with adaptive factor o while no
memory space for fuzzy rules table is required.
The simulation results show that the improved fuzzy
controller with the presented method has the merits such as
simplicity, fast response, low over-tuning, high control
precision, and easy implementation. In addition, the
experiment results show that more power has been extracted
from the PV arrays with this presented method and output
holds stable, though its hardware cost is low comparing to
those with other methods. All these advantages will do good
to the commercialization of PV systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was supported by Shanghai Education
Commission under Project (Excellent Youth Teacher
Project GJD-07005) .
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