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Performance Analysis of MPPT Charge Controller with Single and

Series/Parallel Connected PV Panels

Conference Paper · January 2016

DOI: 10.1109/INTELSE.2016.7475134

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 Performance Analysis of MPPT Charge Controller
with Single and Series/Parallel Connected PV
Panels
Zubair Mehmood, Yumna Bilal Muniba Bashir, Ali Asghar
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Gujrat Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Gujrat
Gujrat, Pakistan Gujrat, Pakistan
{zubair.mehmood, yumna.bilal}@uog.edu.pk [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) charge designed without any storage but mostly batteries are used to
controller is used as an intermediate device in solar system store energy for the times when the sun is not available.
between photovoltaic (PV) panels and batteries. Multiple panels Batteries are connected with PV panels using an intermediate
are usually used to meet higher energy demands in large solar PV device called charge controller which varies in size and type
systems by connecting them in series/parallel configurations. This depending on system requirements. Maximum Power Point
piece of work is based on performance analysis of MPPT charge Tracker (MPPT) is one of the widely used charge controllers
controller with series and parallel connections of solar PV panels. that squeezes maximum available power from the PV panels
The effect of each configuration is analyzed using software and electronically and stores energy into batteries. Adding a
hardware setup. Reason for varying output behavior of MPPT
mechanical aid i.e. sun tracker along MPPT provides better
with different connecting schemes of PV panels is discussed. The
results.
combined results of electrical tacker (MPPT) and mechanical sun
tracker are also presented in this paper for both of above said It has been observed that a panel never provides 100%
configurations. output power in practical environment because the atmospheric
conditions constantly varies and remains below the values on
Keywords—MPPT Controller; Buck-Boost converters; Power which output of the panels are rated. As an example, the data
Electronics for Gujrat city (Longitude: 71.20, Latitude: 32.12) is given in
Table I taken from NASA Solar Energy Department [2]. Any
I. INTRODUCTION PV system installed in Gujrat city may give maximum output
Ubiquitous and abundance of solar energy make solar power of 81% only in the month of June from 12:00 hrs. to
photovoltaic (PV) systems an attractive renewable energy 15:00 hrs. For all other times, the output may be observed from
resource but there are two major challenges that falloff its table I.
efficiency. Firstly the conversion efficiency of PV panels is Table I
very low. It is measured that practical output of PV generators Monthly Average Insolation (KW/m2) Incident at Indicated GMT Times
is 12% and in some special cases it is recorded up to 27%.
Secondly the power generated by PV panels is affected by
many extrinsic factors like temperature, irradiance level, load
condition and ageing etc.
Panels are standardized under Standard Test Conditions
(STC). According to STC, temperature should be 25oC with
value of air mass being 1.5 and the intensity of light
(insolation) falling on panels should be 1000 watt/m2. The
Solar Energy Constant (density of the power radiated from the
sun) is 1.373KW/m2 at the outer atmosphere [1]. The peak
value of sun light at the tropics after passing through air at
noon is 1000 watt/m2. This is the reason that panels are rated at
1Kwatt/m2. If the surface plane of PV panels directly faces the
sun, the insolation (light intensity/solar irradiance) is higher. The battery storage system represents about 30% of the cost
Isolation reduction is related to the change in Panels angle and the PV array corresponds to 57% of the total cost in
therefore the sun trackers increases output when integrated photovoltaic systems [3]. Efforts on all parts of solar PV
with PV systems. system are being made to improve the efficiency of this
expensive source of energy. “Electricity transformation
It is a common practice to connect multiple photovoltaic efficiency of a PV cell is very low that reaches about 27% only.
(PV) panels in parallel/series configurations to fulfill the For a 1 cm2 GaAs cell, the efficiency is reported up to 26.4%
energy demand of the applications. PV systems may be

978-1-4673-8753-8/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

which is fabricated and measured in Fraunhofer Institute of generated by the panels at that moment. The generated PV
Solar Energy Systems [4]. power after specific interval is compared with previous
measured value to detect the change and then a control signal is
PV panels can be connected in parallel or series generated to vary the duty cycle. Summary of the P&O
configurations for higher output requirements when deploying algorithm is given in table II.
a single panel of large size is not feasible. The intermediate
device connecting PV panels with batteries i.e. charge Table II
controller are majorly available in two categories named as P&O Cases Summary
PWM (conventional) controller and MPPT controllers. MPPT Case Condition Current Location Duty Cycle Signal
controller is basically a buck-boost converter that varies its 1 ΔVk < 0, ΔPk < 0 Left side of MPP Increase
duty cycle according to the atmospheric conditions and enables
2 ΔVk > 0, ΔPk < 0 Right side of MPP Decrease
the PV panels to be operated at their peak power point. The
block diagram of MPPT controller (buck type) is shown in 3 ΔVk < 0, ΔPk > 0 Right side of MPP Decrease
figure 1. 4 ΔVk > 0, ΔPk > 0 Left side of MPP Increase

The objective is to detect peak (maximum) power point in

all above cases and to operate panels at their peak power
voltages. Due to variation in atmospheric conditions, the peak
power point changes and after set time the P&O algorithm
detects the new MPP. Pictorial representation of each case for a
60 watt PV panels is shown in figure 3.

Figure 1: Block Diagram of MPPT Charge Controller

There is variety of MPPT algorithms that vary in

complexity, computational speed, hardware design etc. List of
some popular algorithms is shown in figure 2. These
algorithms are used to control the duty cycle of a buck/boost
converter in MPPT controller. Panel voltage and/or current,
depending on the type of algorithm, is used to identify the
panel peak powers.

Figure 3: Explanation of P&O cases on 60 watt Panel PV curve

Extensive work has been done to enhance the performance

of MPPT charge controllers by introducing number of MPPT
algorithms or by modifying hardware designs. Detailed
analysis of performance comparison between different
algorithms was done in [5]. The two diodes model presented in
[6] addressed the issues in single diode model of PV panels.
The two diode model is easily available for use. Work has been
done in [7], [8], [9] & [10] to improve the output with different
techniques but no analysis is performed yet to study the effect
of connecting configuration schemes of PV panels on MPPT
controllers. In this paper, the analysis of the MPPT controller
with different configurations of PV panels is presented. For this
purpose, already developed models of PV panels and MPPT
controllers are used.

II. RESERCH METHADOLOGY

Three different PV connecting configurations are used for
Figure 2: Types of MPPT algorithms comparison of the MPPT controller. These systems are of equal
output power and are named in this experimental work as given
The performance of MPPT controller varies by change in in table III.
connecting configurations of the PV panels. The said effect is
studied in this work using one of the famous MPPT algorithms
named as Perturbation & Observation (P&O). This algorithm
uses current and voltage sensors to compute the power being
 Table III systems elaborated earlier), insolation level, were recorded
Solar Systems used for Analysis during analysis on hourly basis for several days.
Solar System (Panel wise) Term Used
60 watt panel (Single Plate) Single Panel System Before initiating the work, it was verified by simulations
Parallel Connection of Two 30 watt panels Parallel System and through hardware results that the MPPT controllers have
Series Connection of Two 30 watt panels Series System better output results as compared to the conventional charge
controllers. As stated before, addition of mechanical tracking
The specification of the panels is given below: system i.e. sun tracker incorporated with MPPT Controller,
30 watt Solar Photovoltaic Panel increased the output significantly.
Peak Power 30W
Hardware results for Single Panel System, Parallel System
Peak Power Voltages 17.2V
and Series System are illustrated in figure 5, figure 6 and figure
Peak Power Current 1.75A 7 respectively.
Voltage at Open Circuit 21.6 V
Current at Short Circuit 1.85A

60 watt Solar Photovoltaic Panel

Peak Power 60W
Peak Power Voltages 17.2V
Peak Power Current 3.49A
Voltage at Open Circuit 21.6 V
Current at Short Circuit 3.97A

MATLAB/SIMULINK is one of the widely used software

for PV systems analysis and in this work, already developed
models of PV systems available at [11] are used. The three PV Figure 5: Output current of Single Panel System of MPPT controller with and
systems discussed earlier are also implemented using this without sun tracker
model. It has limitations that temperature effects on PV panels
are not considered. Temperature is kept constant and is 25oC
i.e. room temperature. The MPPT controller is implemented
mathematically in this model instead of using electrical
components like inductor, capacitor and switches. The model
with some alterations for this work is shown in figure 4.

Figure 6: Output current of Parallel Panel System of MPPT controller with

and without sun tracker

Figure 7: Output current of Series Panel System of MPPT controller with and
Figure 4: Mathematical Model of Buck converter without sun tracker

Three PV panels (two 30 watt and one 60 watt), MPPT Series System and Parallel System have varying outputs but
charge controller, conventional charge controller, 12V/18Ah it is found common in all systems, MPP + Sun Tracker
battery, temperature sensors, multi-meters and variable provided higher output currents as compared to the only MPP
electrical load are used for hardware experimental setup. Tracker. The simulated results of these systems with MPP +
Various parameters such as voltage & current (of the three Sun Tracker are combined in a single graph to compare the
behavior of these three systems. The graph is shown in figure
8.

III. RESULTS
Hardware results presented in figure 8 show that the Single
Panel System has least output power against all insolation
levels i.e. from 50 watt/m2 to 600 watt/m2 whereas output
current of Series and Parallel Systems has higher but varying
output.
Figure 10: Parallel System connections with MPPT Controller

The tabular data of voltage changes faced by MPPT controller

for both Parallel and Series Systems is given in table IV:

Table IV
Panel Voltages of Series and Parallel Systems with Changing Light Intensity

Light Intensity Parallel System Series System

50 12.0 18.0
100 13.0 19.0
150 16.0 20.0
200 16.2 20.0
250 16.6 29.0
300 16.6 32.0
350 16.8 32.0
400 17.1 33.5
450 17.2 34.0
500 17.2 34.0
550 17.2 34.4
600 17.2 34.4

Around 7% decay in panel voltages has been observed for

Series System with change of insolation from 600 watt/m2 to
350 watt/m2 whereas for Parallel System it was 4%. The decay
Figure 8: Comparison of the Three Systems for MPPT Generated Current for raised to 28% for Parallel and 44% for Series System for
Battery Charging insolation levels below 300 watt/m2. This causes the decay in
the current output from MPPT in series system at lower
Parallel System shows better output results below insolation levels.
insolation level of 300 watt/m2 whereas Series System is
dominating over all systems for values greater than 300
IV. CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK
watt/m2. It is due to the change in voltage at MPPT controller
input which is different in both Parallel and Series System. All Analysis of various connecting configuration schemes of
panels usually affected equally when the environmental the solar PV panels, interfaced with MPPT controller was
parameter changes. In Series System, the MPPT controller performed and it has been found that Parallel System provides
experiences the voltage change of all the series connected better output for lower insolation levels whereas Series System
panels, whereas in Parallel System, the change in voltage of is dominating over all systems for higher insulation levels. The
only one panel is felt at the input of MPPT controller. The Single Panel System output remained lowest at all insolation
concept explained above is illustrated in Figure 9 and figure 10 levels. It is advisable to have a reconfigurable switches
for Series System and Parallel System respectively. assembly for altering the PV systems configuration according
to the most suitable environment conditions instead of making
them fixed wired.
This will eventually result in the combined efficient output
power of both Parallel and Series Systems discussed above. At
low light intensities approximately below 300 watt/m2 system
should work under parallel system configuration whereas
above this, it must be remained in Series System configuration.
The proposed reconfigurable connection arrangement is shown
in figure 11.

Figure 9: Series System connections with MPPT Controller

 Figure 11: Proposed Switching Configuration

Switch 2 is complementary of switch 1 and switch 3.

Placing switch 2 in ON position results in Series connection of
the two panels where as if switch 1 and switch 3 are on, panels
will be reconfigured to Parallel connections. This switching
system can further be improved by working on the transition
states of these switches. Panels output disconnects completely
during switch transitions. Some method needs to be devised
that may protect it from open circuit effect. It may be
incorporated by adding capacitors or any other storage element
as proposed in [12] so that the system output may not be
affected during transitions.

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