Hybrid MPPT Technique PSO-P&O Applied to Photovoltaic Systems Under Uniform and Partial Shading Conditions

The PV array must always operate at the Global Maximum Power Point (GMPP) in order to make the most of the energy generated. In this context, some classical techniques achieve this goal satisfactorily under uniform shading conditions. However, environmental conditions vary during the day and these methods fail to extract the highest power available under partial shading conditions. The present paper aims to propose a hybrid Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique that uses Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Perturb & Observe (P&O) methods, applied to photovoltaic systems under uniform and partial shading conditions. The photovoltaic system was modeled in the PSIM software. The proposed MPPT technique is compared with the classical P&O, standard PSO and a hybrid P&O-PSO techniques. The simulation results showed that the proposed hybrid algorithm can track GMPP under uniform and partial shading conditions and tracking time is 50% shorter than standard PSO technique. Furthermore, the proposed method manages to extract 0.3% more electricity from the photovoltaic system compared to the P&O-PSO hybrid