| Abstract: | For maximum utilization of solar energy, photovoltaic (PV) power systems should be operated at the maximum
power point (MPP) which can be achieved using maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods. However, the
occurrence of multi-peak on P-V curve of a PV array due to the changing environmental conditions such as being
partially shaded increases the complexity of the tracking process. The global MPP cannot always be achieved by
the conventional MPPT methods. Therefore a novel MPPT method for PV systems using flower pollination (FP)
algorithm is proposed in this paper and the Levy flight is used to improve the convergence of FP algorithm. MPPT
model of the PV system is established in MATLAB to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the
proposed method is compared with two well established MPPT methods. The simulation results indicate that the
proposed MPPT method can quickly track the changes in external environment and effectively handle the partially
shaded condition. |
