Horse Racing Game-Based Improved Incremental Conductance MPPT Strategy for PV Energy Systems

When photovoltaic power systems are operated under realistic weather conditions, partial shading is one of the phenomena affecting the performance of PV power systems due to non-accuracy of the global maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Traditional MPPT methods easily fall into the local power traps, which reduce the efficiency of PV panels. To overcome this disadvantage, this paper proposes a new metaheuristic solution by integrating the horse racing game-based algorithm with the incremental conductance (In-Cond) method. Because the global maximum power area is swiftly reached through the horse racing game-based algorithm, the improved In-Cond technique not only offers greater precision for locating the global MPP but also reacts more quickly and promptly to changing weather circumstances. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method are compared with typical particle swarm optimization (PSO) and In-Cond methods. In the range of 0.40 to 0.48 (s), the proposed method effectively tracked the global MPP (up to 100% efficiency), which was 0.42 to 0.64 (s) faster than the conventional In-Cond technique (efficiency ranges from 89 to 100%). Besides, the convergence time from 0.8 to 1.0 (s) of the PSO method is reduced to 0.65–0.76 (s) of the proposed method, which is shown in the experimental results.