International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 675

ISSN 2229-5518

MPPT TECHNIQUE USING SEPIC CONVERTER

TO TRACK MAXIMUM POWER POINT FOR PV
PANEL
Linu Ann Thomas1, Merin Abraham2, Jerin M James3

Abstract—In this paper, a technique using a SEPIC requires little maintenance and no supervision, and has
converter to efficiently track the maximum power point a life of 20-30 years with low running costs. It is
of a solar panel under varying meteorological especially unique because no large-scale installation is
conditions is presented. Every PV panel has an required. Remote areas can easily produce their own
optimum operating point which varies depending on supply of electricity by constructing as small or as large
cell temperature, the isolation level and array voltage. of a system as needed. Solar power generators are
So, in order to maximize the PV output power, a simply distributed to homes, schools, or businesses,
maximum power point tracker should be used in PV where their assembly requires no extra development or
system .The SEPIC converter is one of the buck-boost land area and their function is safe and quiet. Power
converters which maintain the output voltage as even has advantages over wind power, hydropower,
constant irrespective of the solar isolation level. SEPIC and solar thermal power. The latter three require
has minimal active components, a simple controller,

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turbines with moving parts that are noisy and require
and clamped switching waveforms that provide low maintenance. We still use solar power in the same two
noise operation. Incremental conductance control forms today, thermal and photovoltaic. The first
method has been used as MPPT algorithm. The concentrates sunlight, converts it into heat, and applies
technique is simple and elegant and does not require it to a steam generator or engine to be converted into
complicated mathematical computation. electricity in order "to warm buildings, heat water,
generate electricity, dry crops or destroy dangerous
Keywords—Maximum power point tracking, PV Module,
waste." Electricity is generated when the heated fluid
SEPIC Converter.
drives turbines or other machinery. The second form of
I. INTRODUCTION solar power produces electricity directly without
moving parts. Today's photovoltaic system is composed
Solar energy is most sought today in
of cells made of silicon, the second most abundant
developing countries, the fastest growing segment of
element in the earth's crust. "Power is produced when
the photovoltaics market. People go without electricity
sunlight strikes the semiconductor material and creates
as the sun beats down on the land, making solar power
an electric current." The smallest unit of the system is a
the obvious energy choice. "Governments are finding
cell. Cells wired together form a module, and modules
its modular, decentralized character ideal for filling the
wired together form a panel.
electric needs of the thousands of remote villages in
their countries." It is much more practical than the
extension of expensive power lines into remote areas, Solar technologies are broadly characterized as
either passive or active depending on the way they
where people do not have the money to pay for
capture, convert and distribute sunlight and enable solar
conventional electricity. Solar panel is the fundamental
energy to be harnessed at different levels around the
energy conversion component of photovoltaic (PV) world, mostly depending on distance from the equator.
systems. Its conversion efficiency depends on many Although solar energy refers primarily to the use of
extrinsic factors, such as insolation levels, temperature, solar radiation for practical ends, all renewable energies,
and load condition[1]. other than geothermal and tidal, derive their energy
There are several advantages of photovoltaic from the Sun in a direct or indirect way. Active solar
solar power that make it "one of the most promising techniques use photovoltaics, concentrated solar power,
renewable energy sources in the world." It is non- solar thermal collectors, pumps, and fans to convert
polluting, has no moving parts that could break down, sunlight into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques
include selecting materials with favorable thermal

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 676
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properties, designing spaces that naturally circulate air, In recent years there has been a growing
and referencing the position of a building to the Sun. attention towards use of solar energy. The main
Active solar technologies increase the supply of energy advantages of photovoltaic (PV) systems employed for
and are considered supply side technologies, while harnessing solar energy are lack of greenhouse gas
passive solar technologies reduce the need for alternate emission, low maintenance costs, fewer limitations with
resources and are generally considered demand side regard to site of installation and absence of mechanical
technologies. Since solar energy is not available at noise arising from moving parts. However, PV systems
night, storing its energy is an important issue in order to suffer from relatively low conversion efficiency.
have continuous energy availability. Both wind power Therefore, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for
and solar power are intermittent energy sources, the solar array is essential in a PV system. The
meaning that all available output must be taken when it nonlinear behavior of PV systems as well as variations
is available, and either stored for when it can be used of the maximum power point with solar irradiance level
later, or transported over transmission lines to where it and temperature complicates the tracking of the
can be used now. Concentrated solar power plants maximum power point. A variety of MPPT methods
typically use thermal energy storage to store the solar have been proposed and implemented.
energy, such as in high-temperature molten salts. These
salts are an effective storage medium because they are II. PV PANEL MODELLING
low-cost, have a high specific heat capacity, and can
deliver heat at temperatures compatible with A photovoltaic cell is a device which converts
conventional power systems. This method of energy light energy to electrical energy. If band gap is less than
storage is used, for example, by the Solar Two power energy of photon of light, electron is emitted and

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station, allowing it to store 1.44 TJin its 68 m³ storage creates current. Photovoltaic cell is forward biased [3].
tank, enough to provide full output for close to 39 A group of photovoltaic cell is called as PV module.
hours, with an efficiency of about 99%[3]. PV modules are arranged in series and parallel to get
modules different sizes that ranges from 60W to 170W.
The maximum power produced varies with both In this paper the solar panel is designed for 60W. A PV
irradiance and temperature. Since the conversion array consists of a number of photovoltaic cells in
efficiency of PV arrays is very low, it requires series and parallel connections. Series connections
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control increases the voltage of the module, and in parallel
techniques. The maximum power point tracking
increases the current in the array [4]. Considering only
(MPPT) is the automatic control algorithm to adjust the
a single solar cell; it can be modeled by utilizing a
power interfaces and achieve the greatest possible
power harvest, during moment to moment variations of current source, a diode and two resistors. This model is
light level, shading, temperature, and photovoltaic known as a single diode model of solar cell which is
module characteristics. The purpose of the MPPT is to shown in Figure-1.
adjust the solar operating voltage close to the MPP
under changing atmospheric conditions. It has become
an essential component to evaluate the design
performance of PV power systems. This investigation
aims to assess different MPPT techniques, provide
background knowledge, implementation topology, grid
interconnection of PV and solar micro inverter
requirements presented in the literature, doing depth
comparisons between them with a brief discussion. The
MPPT merits, demerits and classification, which can be
used as a reference for future research related to
optimizing the solar power generation, are also Figure 1: Circuit diagram of PV model
discussed. Conventional methods are easy to implement
but they suffer from oscillations at MPP and tracking
The characteristic equation for a photovoltaic cell is
speed is less due to fixed perturb step. Intelligent
given by equation,
methods are efficient; oscillations are lesser at MPP in
steady state and tracked quickly in comparison to
conventional methods[5].

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 677
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I=I pv - Is [exp - 1] - (1)

Where
I pv = PV Current (A)
I s = Saturation Current (A)
Q = Electron Charge (1.60217×10-19 C)
K = Boltzmann constant (1.38065×10-23 J/K)
A = Diode ideality constant
R s = Series Resistance of cell (Ω)
R p = Parallel Resistance of cell (Ω)
N s = No. of Cells in series
T = Temperature (K)

To model the solar panel correctly two diode

model is relevant. But here it is limited to single diode Figure 3 : PV Characteristics of a solar panel
model. Figure-2 shows IV curve of solar and also the P-
V characteristics, when voltage and current III. MPPT ALGORITHMS
characteristics are multiplied as shown in Figure-3.
Panel power output reaches its peak at point mentioned
as MPP. As we know power conversion efficiency of
solar module very low. To increase efficiency of solar

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module proper impedance matching requires to
increase efficiency of solar module. MPPT algorithms
are vary due to simplicity, efficiency, tracking speed,
sensor required and cost. It is seen that the V-I
characteristics of the solar module is nonlinear and
extremely affected by the solar irradiation and
temperature. To maximize the output power of solar
module, it has to be operated at fixed value of load
resistance. This requires a separate power converter
circuit for the MPPT. In our design, a SEPIC type DC-
DC converter is used to extract the maximum power
from solar module.
For small-scale systems, MPPT is popular for
economical reasons. The various methods used for
MPPT are as follows:
Figure 2: I-V characteristics of a solar panel 1. Power matching scheme
2. Curve-fitting technique (hill climbing method)
3. Perturb-and-observe method
4. Incremental conductance technique

A. Curve-Fitting Technique

The curve-fitting technique requires prior

examination of the solar panel characteristics, so that an
explicit mathematical function for describing the output
characteristics is formulated. Although this technique
attempts to track the maximum power point without
computing the voltage–current product explicitly for
the panel power, the curve-fitting technique cannot

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 678
ISSN 2229-5518

predict the characteristics including other complex

factors, such as aging, temperature, and a possible C. Incremental Conductance Technique (ICT)
breakdown of individual cells[5].
B. Perturb-and-Observe (PAO) Method The disadvantage of the PAO method can be
improved by comparing the instantaneous panel
The P&O algorithms operate by periodically conductance with the incremental panel conductance.
perturbing (i.e. incrementing or decrementing) the array This incremental conductance technique is the most
terminal voltage or current and comparing the PV accurate one among the other methods. In this
output power with that of the previous perturbation technique, the controller measures incremental change
cycle. If the PV array operating voltage changes and in module voltage and current to observe the effect of a
power increases (dP/dVPV >0), the control system power change. This method requires more calculation
moves the PV array operating point in that direction; but can track fast than perturb and observe algorithm
otherwise the operating point is moved in the opposite (P&O). Under abruptly change in irradiation level as
direction. In the next perturbation cycle the algorithm maximum power point changes continuously, P&O
continues in the same way. A common problem in receipts it as a change in MPP due to perturb rather
P&O algorithms is that the array terminal voltage is than that of isolation and sometimes end up in
perturbed every MPPT cycle; therefore when the MPP calculating incorrect MPP. However this problem get
is reached, the output power oscillates around the avoided by incremental conductance (INC)[2].
maximum, resulting in power loss in the PV system. In this method algorithm takes two sample of
This is especially true in constant or slowly-varying voltage and current to maximize power from solar

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atmospheric conditions. Furthermore, P&O methods module. However due to effectiveness and complexity
can fail under rapidly changing atmospheric condition, of incremental conductance algorithm very high
which is shown in figure 4. Starting from an operating compare to perturb and observe. Like the P&O
point A, if atmospheric conditions stay approximately algorithm, it can produce oscillations in power output.
constant, a perturbation ΔV the voltage V will bring the This study on realizing MPPT by improved incremental
operating point to B and the perturbation will be conductance method with variable step-size. So these
reversed due to a decrease in power. However, if the are two advantage of incremental conductance method.
irradiance increases and shifts the power curve from P1 So in our implementation to achieve high efficiency
to P2 within one sampling period, the operating point this method utilize incremental conductance (dI/dV) of
will move from A to C. This represents an increase in the photovoltaic array to calculate the sign of the
power and the perturbation is kept the same. change in power with respect to voltage (dP/dV). The
Consequently, the operating point diverges from the controller maintains this voltage till the isolation
MPP and will keep diverging if the irradiance steadily changes and the process is repeated. Flow chart of
increases[4]. incremental conductance is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 4 : Divergence of P&O from MPP

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76% as the MPP/Voc ratio is not necessarily accurate

though. Although simple and low cost to implement,
the interruption reduce array efficiency and do not
ensure finding the actual maximum power point.
However, efficiencies of some systems may reach
above 95%[4].

V. PROPOSED SYSTEM

A. DESCRIPTION OF BLOCK DIAGRAM

The solar power which can be obtained from
solar cell cannot be utilized directly. It is usually stored
in the battery and inverter circuit and further it can be
used as AC. But the output voltage as well as power
from the solar cell depends upon the illumination and
Figure 5: Flow chart of Incremental Conductance intensity of the light. If the light intensity is very low it
(INC) algorithm may produce very low output voltage. The lower output
voltage from the solar cell may not charge the battery

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IV. COMPARISON OF METHODS and the power is wasted. Here an intermediate stage of
converter called SEPIC is used to boost the lower
Both perturb and observe, and incremental output voltage from the solar cell and also buck the
conductance, are examples of “Hill Climbing Methods voltage if the light intensity is high.
“that can find the local maximum of the power curve
for the operating condition of the PV array, and so
provide a true maximum power point.
The perturb and observe methods can produce
oscillations of power output around the maximum
power point even under the steady state irradiance. The
incremental conductance method has the advantage
over the perturb and observe (P&O) method that it can
determine the maximum power without
oscillatingaround this value. It can perform power point
tracking under rapidly varying irradiation conditions
with higher accuracy than the perturb and observe Figure 6: Block Diagram of proposed system
method. However, the incremental conductance method
can produce oscillations and can perform erratically In this SEPIC converter, MPP tracking is much
under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. The easier because the amount of input current ripple
computational time is increased due to the slowing present is non-pulsating. Since the switch present in
down of the sampling frequency resulting from the SEPIC converter is directly connected to ground only
higher complexity of the algorithm compared to the low side driving is required which is easier than high
P&O method. side driving used in buck-boost converter. Additionally,
In the constant voltage ration (or “open the SEPIC converter is highly efficient compared to
voltage”)method, the current from the photovoltaic buck-boost converter.
must be set to zero momentarily to measure the open The voltage gain of a SEPIC converter is given by,
circuit voltage and then afterwards set to a (2)
V o = D/1-D * V pv
predetermined percentage of the measured voltage,
usually around 76%.energy may be wasted during the
time the current is set to zero. The approximation of

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Where D = T on / T s is the duty ratio of the converter irradiation condition where unique MPP occurs at a
switch, V o is the output voltage of the converter and voltage close to 0.75Voc, peak power points occur at
V pv is the input voltage which is fed from the solar lower, middle and higher voltage levels of the PV
array. The control signal of PWM1 is produced by array. Single-ended primary inductor converter
comparing the panel current I pv with a control signal, (SEPIC) is a type of DC-DC converter, that allows the
which is a saw tooth wave derived from the basic voltage at its output to be more than, less than, or equal
equations of SEPIC converter. The SEPIC converter to that at its input. The output voltage of the SEPIC is
acts in buck mode for reducing the panel voltage to controlled by the duty cycle of the MOSFET. A SEPIC
constant value. But for grid interface, the SEPIC is similar to a traditional buck-boost converter, but has
converter has to work in the boost mode. The input advantages of having non-inverted output, by means of
power of the converter can be controlled by varying the coupling energy from the input to the output is via a
amplitude of the control signal and it is called constant series capacitor. When the switch is turned off output
input power mode operation. voltage drops to 0 V. SEPIC is useful in applications
like battery charging where voltage can be above and
B . ANALYSIS OF SEPIC CONVERTER below that of the regulator output.

The SEPIC converter is used as an interface Table : 1 Parameter values of SEPIC converter
between the PV array and the load to provide load
impedance matching with the PV source. SEPIC is
essentially a boost converter followed by buck-boost

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converter. Therefore SEPIC is similar to buck-boost
converter but it has the advantage of having non-
inverted output. Also the coupling capacitor offers
isolation between output side and input side which is
unique to SEPIC converter only. In SEPIC converter,
MPP tracking can be done with ease because of low
input ripple current. In addition to that, SEPIC
converter is more efficient than buck-boost DC-DC converter used in maximum power
converte[6]r. The circuit diagram of the SEPIC point tracking system to interface load and PV system
converter is figure 7. SEPIC (Single Ended Primary Inductance Converter) is
modelled, output voltage of SEPIC converter can be
step-up or step-down then input voltage. In MPPT
SEPIC converter work in continuous conduction mode.
PWM controlled with switching frequency of 50KHz.
Power flow of circuit controlled by using ON/OFF duty
ratio threw switching MOSFET[6].
Maximum power point tracking by incremental
conductance method + Integral regulator. Maximum
power point is obtained when dP/dV=0

Where P= V*Id(V*I)/dV = I + V*dI/dV = 0

dI/dV = -I/V
The integral regulator minimizes the error
Figure 7: Circuit diagram of SEPIC converter
(dI/dV + I/V) Regulator output = Duty cycle correction,
Maximum power point is obtained using incremental
The design of SEPIC converter has been
conductance method. So in our implementation to
explained and the designed values of the different
achieve high efficiency this method utilize incremental
parameters of the SEPIC converter is listed in the table
conductance (dI/dV) of the photovoltaic array to
1. The SEPIC converter is designed for 920 W load
calculate the sign of the change in power with respect
since four panels are connected in series as each panel
to voltage (dP/dV). The controller maintains this
is rated for 230 W peak power. Unlike uniform

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 681
ISSN 2229-5518

voltage till the isolation changes and the process is VI SIMULATION RESULTS
repeated.
The penetration of PV systems as distributed MATLAB is an interactive, matrix-based package
power generation systems has been increased scientific and engineering graphical user interface,
dramatically in the last years. In parallel with this, signal processing, fuzzy logic, and many others. The
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is becoming number optimization, statistics, neural networks, of
more and more important as the amount of energy different toolboxes increases with each newer version of
produced by PV systems is increasing. Since the MPP MATLAB numeric computation and visualization. It
depends on solar irradiation and cell temperature, it is can solve complex numerical problems in a fraction of
never constant over time and hence Maximum Power the time required.
Point Tracking (MPPT) technique should be used to
track the maximum power point.

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Figure 8 : SEPIC Converter operating area

The range of operation of SEPIC converter

Figure 9 : Simulation of SEPIC Converter

The final simulation model of SEPIC converter

covers the entire V-I characteristics of the PV is shown in Fig.9. Simulations have been performed to
cell/module as shown in fig. 8 and hence it is a suitable confirm the above analysis. Figs. 9 and 10 show the
converter to be picked for MPPT under normal as well Simulation of open loop SEPIC Converter and
simulation result of SEPIC Converter. Table II shows
as partially shaded conditions. In general, maximum
the simulation input and output parameters.
power is transferred to the load from the source only
when the impedances of the load and source are
Table 2 : Simulation parameters
matched. If the load is connected directly to the PV
system, the impedance matching may not occur at all
operating conditions. Therefore, SEPIC converter is
used as an interface to provide the impedance
matching. The equation which relates the load
resistance and input resistance of the converter in terms
of duty cycle D is given in equation,
R in = (1-D)2/D2 × R 0(3)
By varying duty cycle, entire P-V curve can be swept
using SEPIC converter which is very much essential for
tracking global maximum power point under partial
shading conditions.

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, April-2016 682
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259-266.
[3] A. H. M. Nordin and A. M. Omar, “Modeling and
simulation of photovoltaic (PV) array and maximum
power point tracker (MPPT) for grid-connected PV
system,” in Proceedings of the3rd International
Symposium and Exhibition in Sustainable Energy and
Environment (ISESEE ’11), pp. 114–119, June 2011.
[4] D. Hohm and M. Ropp, “Comparative study of
maximum power point tracking algorithms using an
experimental, programmable, maximum power point
tracking test bed,” in Proceedings of the 28th IEEE
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 1699–1702,
IEEE, Anchorage, Alaska, USA, 2000.
[5] Y.-T. Hsiao and C.-H. Chen, “Maximum power
tracking for photovoltaic power system,” in
Proceedings of the 37th IAS Annual Meeting and World
Conference on Industrial Applications of Electrical
Figure : 10 Simulation Result of SEPIC Converter Energy, pp. 1035–1040, October 2002.
[6] S. Ganesh, J. Janani, G. Besliya Angel” A
Maximum Power Point Tracker for PV Panels Using
VII CONCLUSION SEPIC Converter”IJEREC Vol:8 No:2,2014.s

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In this paper, the proposed incremental
conductance algorithm was used to track the MPP for
PV module under a fast - changing solar irradiation
level. SEPIC type converter is used in this study as
DC/DC converter of the MPPT system. A comparison
of incremental conductance method and perturb and
observe method has been done in this paper. SEPIC is
similar to buck-boost converter which maintain the
output voltage as constant irrespective of the solar
isolation level, but it has the advantage of having non-
inverted output. By adjusting the switching frequency
of the converter the maximum power point has been
achieved. SEPIC also has minimal active components,
a simple controller, and clamped switching waveforms
that provide low noise operation. The technique is
simple and elegant and does not require complicated
mathematical computation.

REFERENCES

[1] W. Xiao, N. Ozog, and W. G. Dunford, “Topology

study of photovoltaic interface for maximum power
point tracking,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 1696–1704, 2007.
[2] Kish, G., Lee, J., Lehn, P. “Modelling and control of
photovoltaic panels utilising the incremental
conductance method for maximum power point
tracking”, IET Renew. Power Gener. 2012, 6(4), pp.

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