Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaic
Using Only Single Current Sensor
Toshihiko Noguchi, and Hiroyuki Matsumoto
Nagaoka University of Technology
1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan
Phone: +81-258-47-9510, Fax: +81-258-47-9500
e-mail: tnoguchi@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp
URL: pelab.nagaokaut.ac.jp/
Keywords: «Converter control» «Estimation techniques» «Modeling» «Renewable energy systems»«Sensors» «Solar cell systems»

Abstract
This paper describes a novel strategy of maximum-power-point tracking for photovoltaic power
generation systems. A unique feature of this method is capability to seek the maximum power point
using only a single current sensor, i.e., a Hall-effect CT. Output power of the photovoltaic can be
estimated with an average value and ripple amplitude of the detected current. A conventional
hill-climbing method is employed to seek the maximum power point, using the output power obtained
from only the current sensor. In this paper, not only a theoretical aspect of the proposed method is
described, but also experimental results are presented to prove feasibility of the method.

1. Introduction
Photovoltaic power generation systems have intensively been investigated as anenvironment-friendly technology since 1970s because of their advantages of infinite energy resources
and no CO2 emission. However, low efficiency and high cost per unit output power are the biggest
problem of the systems; which prevents the systems from being extensively used so far.
A technique to utilize effectively the photovoltaic is known as a maximum-power- point
tracking (MPPT) method, which makes it possible to acquire as much power as possible from thephotovoltaic. Since an electric characteristic of the output power to the operating voltage or current
has a convex property, there exists only one optimum operating point on the power-voltage (orcurrent) curve. The MPPT is a method to let the controller operate at the above-mentioned optimum
operating point. There have been various kinds of MPPT methods reported and the most common
technique of them is a hill-climbing method, which seeks the optimum operating point by changing theoperating voltage or current until the power becomes the maximum [1]-[4]. Therefore, this method
essentially requires power calculation using both the voltage sensor and the current sensor.
On the other hand, several other proposals have been made, which are completely different fromthe conventional hill-climbing based MPPT methods. Some of them determine the optimum
operating current on the basis of a short-current detection of the photovoltaic [5], [6]. These methods
utilize a property of the photovoltaic of which optimum operating current is proportional to its shortcurrent. One of them has a monitor photovoltaic cell to detect its short-current and another has aswitch that intermittently and directly shorts the main photovoltaic. These methods do not require
the voltage sensor but the monitor photovoltaic or the short-circuit switch must be implemented in the
power converter.
As described above, several sensors and/or additional equipment are indispensable to achieve
MPPT in the conventional system, which makes the system configuration considerably complicated.

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Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

Table I Ratings of GL418-TF
Rated maximum power
Rated output voltage

6.5 (W)
6 (V)

20 (℃) 4000 (lx)20 (℃) 22000 (lx)60 (℃) 22000 (lx)1.6Output Power (W)

1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0

50

100
150
200
Operating Current (mA)

250

Fig. 1: Example of power-voltage characteristics.
This paper focuses on information included in current ripples, which are inherently generated byswitching operation of the power converter, and proposes a technique capable to seek the
maximum-power- point with only a single current sensor. Reducing sensor count or other equipment
contributes to simplify circuit implementation and to reduce system cost. This paper discusses atheoretical aspect of the proposed technique and presents experimental results to demonstrate an
excellent MPPT operation of the system.

2. Principle of Hill-Climbing Method
As described in the previous section, it is indispensable to operate the photovoltaic at the
optimum operating point where the maximum power is available; hence the most important issue is
how to find the optimum operating point in dealing with the photovoltaic. Fig. 1 shows an example
of power-current characteristics measured with a commercially available photovoltaic panel (Showa
Shell GL418-TF), of which electrical specifications are listed in Table I. As shown in the graph, thepower-current characteristics of the photovoltaic have hill-shaped upward convexity and have different
maximum points to be sought by the MPPT controller, depending on irradiance and temperature. In
the hill-climbing method based system, gradient of the output power is directly calculated by changing
the operating current and a peak of the hill is sought until the gradient is almost zero, where themaximum power is available. Since this method is based on actual output power detection of thephotovoltaic, MPPT can be achieved even if the optimum operating point varies with the irradianceand/or the temperature. Also, the method is adaptive to environmental disturbances, e.g., surface
contamination of the panel, electrical performance degradation over years, and so forth. However, ittakes a considerably long time to seek the maximum power point because of the successive seeking
operation as described above.

3. Power Estimation Algorithm Using Single Sensor Information
3. 1. Power Circuit Configuration
Fig. 2 shows power circuit configuration to be discussed in this paper. The system consists ofa photovoltaic panel, a DC/DC converter, and a load resistor. The DC/DC converter is a simple boost
chopper that has only a single current sensor. This circuit operates in a switching mode and is

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MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

regarded as a non linear system; thus analysis of the circuit is complicated. Therefore, an averaged
state variable method is introduced to analyze the circuit, which allows dealing with the circuit as alinear system. In the linearization process, the photovoltaic is regarded as an equivalent circuitcomposed with a DC voltage source and a series connected internal resistance. It should be notedthat both the equivalent voltage source and the series resistance are variant with respect to theoperating point of the photovoltaic.

3. 2. Averaged State-Variable Equation of Power Circuit
Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b) show equivalent circuits in an on-state and in an off state of the boost
chopper. rL , rS and rD are an equivalent resistance corresponding to reactor losses, an on-state
resistance of the main switching device and an equivalent resistance of the diode forward drop,
respectively. From the equivalent circuits shown in Fig. 3, the following state variable equation canbe obtained in the on-state, where the state variables are a capacitor voltage vC , a reactor current i Land an output voltage vo , i.e., x = [vC iL vo ] :dx= AON x + bONVPV ,
dt
where
 1 
1
1


−
0 


− R CC1
PV 1
 RPV C1 


r +r
1
AON = − L S
0  , and bON =  0  .



 L
L



1 
0
 0 

 0
RL C 2 



T

(1)

On the other hand, the state variable equation in the off-state is as follows:dx= AOFF x + bOFFVPV ,
dt

(2)

where
1

− R C
PV 1
1
AOFF =
 L

 0


1
C1
rL + rD
−
L
1
−
C2
−

 1 

0 


 RPV C1 1−  , and bOFF =  0  .


L 



1
 0 

RL C 2 [Assuming that the averaged state-variable vector is x = vC
transformed into the following expression:dx= Ax + bVPV ,dt
where
A = AON D + AOFF D ′1
− R C
PV 1

1
=
 L

0



1
−
C1
r + r D + rD D ′
− L S
L
1
−
D′
C2

iL

]

T

vo , the above equation can be

(3)

 1 



0 
 RPV C1 
 0 .
, and b = bON D + bOFF D ′ =1− D ′


L 
 0 
1 



RL C 2 In the above equation, D and D ′ (= 1 − D ) are duty factors of the on-state and the off-state,
respectively. Both D and D ′ are less than unity.

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Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

LPV
V PV , R PV

D

C2

C1

RL

S
I L ,∆I L

Fig. 2: Photovoltaic and boost chopper.

R PV

V PV

C1

rL

R PV

L

rS C 2

vc

RL

vo

V PV

C1

rL

L

vc

rD

C2

iL

iL

(a)

(b)

RL

vo

Fig. 3: Equivalent circuits of boost chopper.
(a) Equivalent circuit in on-state. (b) Equivalent circuit in off-state.

3. 3. Current Ripple Equation
Since dx dt = 0 in a steady state, the capacitor voltage VC , the reactor current I L and theoutput voltage Vo in the steady state can be expressed as

rL + rS D + rD D ′ + RL D ′ 2 
VC 
V


I  =
PV
1(4)
.
 L  r + r D + r D′ + R + R D′ 2 
L
S
D
PV
L


Vo 
R2 D ′

Ripple amplitude of the reactor current ∆i L is derived by multiplying (1) by on-state duration as
follows:r +r 
1∆i L = DTS  vC − L S i L  .
(5)
L
L

Approximating the capacitor voltage and the reactor current to those values in the steady state as
obtained in (4), steady state ripple amplitude of the reactor current ∆I L is derived as the following
equation:
DTS
VPV
(6)
(rS D + rD D′ − rS + RL D′2 ) ,∆I L =
L rL + rS D + rD D ′ + RPV + RL D ′ 2
where TS is a switching period.

3. 4. Power Estimation with Only Current Information
The output power of the photovoltaic can be estimated as follows, paying attention to that VPV ,RPV , VC , Vo and RL are all unknown:

Vo2
L=∆I L I L + (rS − rD )D ′I L2 .
(7)
RL DTSIt should be noted that D , D′ and TS are known variables because they are manipulating
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Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

iL

∆IL

+

M aximum peakholder

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

-

Power
Estimatorand MPPTController

Minimum peakholderGate
SignalIL
Average
Digital Signal Processor
ADMC328-20M Hz

Fig. 4: Proposed MPPT technique.
M aximum peak holder
−

−

＋

＋

∆ iL

iL

−

−

＋

＋

M inimum peak holder

Fig. 5: Current ripple detector.
quantities specified by the controller and that L , rS and rD are variables of which values are
preliminarily available. Therefore, (7) represents that the output power can be estimated withinformation of ∆i L and I L from only the current sensor. The hill-climbing method allows MPPT
by using the estimated output power.

4. MPPT Operation with Single Current Sensor
4. 1. Proposed MPPT System Configuration
Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of the proposed MPPT technique. As previously described, thesystem implementation is simplified because the photovoltaic power can be estimated with no voltage
sensors and no short-current switches. The Hall-effect CT detects the reactor current including its
ripples, and the ripple amplitude and the average current are calculated with some analog hardwareand DSP (Analog Devices ADMC328-20MHz) based software. Since the switching frequency of the
chopper is 10 (kHz), the current ripple detector is composed with a simple Op-amp based circuit asshown in Fig. 5, instead of use of high-speed A/D converters. By using this analog circuit, both the
maximum peak and the minimum peak of the reactor current are held. The average current I L is
obtained from sum of the both peak values, while the current ripple amplitude ∆I L is calculated bydifference between the two peak values.

4. 2. Operation of Current Ripple Detector
Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b) show operations of the current ripple detector when the ripple amplitude ischanged stepwise. Fig. 6(a) corresponds to the case of increasing the ripple amplitude, and Fig. 6(b)is the case of decreasing. As can be seen in Fig. 6(a), the current ripple detector properly tracks stepchanges of the ripple amplitude without large delays. However, Fig. 6(b) indicates that the current

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Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

2.5

2.5
Maximum peak

2.0

1.5

Current (A)Current (A)

2.0

1.0
Current ripple

0.5
0.0

Maximum peak

1.5
1.0

Current ripple

0.5
0.0

-0.5

-0.5

Minimum peak

-1.0
0.000

0.001

0.002

0.003

0.004

Minimum peak

-1.0
0.000

0.004

0.008

0.012

Time (s)Time (s)

(a)

(b)

0.016

0.020

0.8

1.0

Fig. 6: Responses of current ripple detector.
(a) In case of increasing ripple. (b) In case of decreasing ripple.
Table II Ratings of S-270A
Rated maximum power
Rated output voltage

35 (W)
16.6 (V)

3.5

3.5
Measured
Estimated

Measured
Estimated

3.0
Output Power (W)Output Power (W)

3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0

2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5

0.5

0.0

0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Duty Factor

0.8

1.0

(a)

0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Duty Factor(b)Fig. 7: Experimental results of measured and estimated output power.
(a) In case of low irradiance (251-315 (W/m2)). (b) In case of high irradiance (552-643 (W/m2)).
ripple detector requires approximately 8 (ms) and 14 (ms) to track the new maximum value and the
new minimum value, respectively. These delays are caused by discharge time constant of thecapacitors. However, the delays hardly affect the MPPT performance of the system because solar
irradiation slowly varies in a few seconds.

4. 3. Evaluation of Estimated Power
Fig. 7 shows experimental results of measured output power and estimated output power, where
the duty factor of the boost chopper is manually changed. A test photovoltaic panel is S-270A
released by Sharp Co. whose electrical ratings are listed in Table II. When irradiance is relatively
low as shown in Fig. 7(a), small error can be observed in a low-duty range but the estimated result
agrees well with the measured values in the whole. It is confirmed that the maximum power point isobserved at D = 0.4 in both estimated and measured results. Fig. 7(b) shows another experimental

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Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

Output Power (W)

2.5

Operating Points

2.0
22.0 (kW/m )

1.5
1.0
2

1.5 (kW/m )0.5

2

1.0 (kW/m )
0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Duty Factor

0.8

1.0

Fig. 8: Experimental result of proposed MPPT method.
result in the case of relatively high irradiance. As can be seen in the figure, excellent agreement isconfirmed between the estimated and measured output power. Both results indicate that the
maximum power can be obtained at D = 0.7 . Since the optimum operating points are sought by thehill-climbing method as described before, absolute accuracy in estimating the output power is
unnecessary. In other words, it is possible to seek the maximum power point as long as both theestimated and the measured characteristics have their peaks at the same duty factor.

Some errors can be seen between the estimated and measured output power in low duty factor
range in Fig. 7. It is inferred that the resistance variation in the diode forward drop rD is a cause of
the estimation error because rD is assumed to be constant in (7). When the duty factor is low, thediode terminal voltage does not saturate due to a low current, which leads increase of the equivalent
resistance. Another cause of the estimation error must be caused by an error in detecting the current
with the Hall-effect CT.

4. 4. Experimental Result of Proposed MPPT System
An experimental test was conducted to confirm performance of the proposed technique, using atest photovoltaic of GL418-TF listed in Table I. During the experiment, surface temperature of the test
photovoltaic panel was kept almost constant at 50 (°C). Fig. 8 shows that the MPPT controller basedon the proposed technique successfully reached the maximum power point even though the irradiancevaries widely. As can be confirmed in this experimental result, the MPPT operation is possible with
only a single current sensor.

4. 5. Discussion on Parameter Sensitivity
Parameter sensitivity was examined through computer simulations. Fig. 9 shows duty factor
error between the estimated and measured maximum power points. According to the power
estimation algorithm expressed as (7), an inductance mismatch may detrimentally affect the estimation
performance and the MPPT performance. Therefore; the duty factor error between the estimated andmeasured maximum power points was examined, changing the inductance in (7) from 10 to 200 (%)
of real inductance used in the chopper and changing the load resistance. As can be seen in the figure,the inductance mismatch hardly affects the MPPT performance and the load resistance is almost
independent of the performance.

5. Conclusion
This paper has proposed a novel strategy of maximum-power-point tracking of a photovoltaic,
which can be implemented with only a single current sensor. Possibility of estimating the output
power of the photovoltaic with only the current sensor has been discussed and been examined throughvarious experimental tests.

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Duty Factor Error between
Maximum Power Points

Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor

MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki

0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
0
50
100
150
200
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)

Duty Factor Error between
Maximum Power Points

(a)
0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
0
50
100
150
200
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)

Duty Factor Error between
Maximum Power Points

(b)
0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
0
50
100
150
200
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)(c)
Fig. 9: Parameter sensitivity of proposed method.
(a) RL = 20 (Ω) . (b) RL = 50 (Ω) . (c) RL = 100 (Ω) .
In the theoretical analysis, it has been clarified that the output power can be estimated withinformation only from the current sensor, i.e., an average value and ripple amplitude of the current.
Also, a simple circuit configuration to make the current-ripple detection possible has been illustrated.
Operating characteristics of the current ripple detector have been examined and proper
estimation result of the output power has been confirmed through the experimental tests.
Consequently, the MPPT using only the single current sensor has been achieved with excellent
accuracy.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]

O. Wasynczuk, “Dynamic Behavior of a Class of Photovoltaic Power Systems,” IEEE Trans. on Power
App. Sys., 102, 9, 3031-3037, 1983.
Katsumi Ohniwa, and Tsuyoshi Sato, ”A Simplified Maximum Power Tracking Method for Photovoltaic
Solar System,” IEE-Japan Trans. on Power Sys., 106-B, 7, 72-78, 1984.
I. H. Altas, and A. M. Sharaf, “A Novel On-Line MPP Search Algorithm for PV Arrays,” IEEE Trans. on
Energy Conv., 11, 4, 748-754, 1996.
C. Hua, J. Lin, and C. Shen, “Implementation of a DSP-Controlled Photovoltaic System with Peak Power
Tracking,” IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elec., 45, 1, 99-107, 1998.
Hirofumi Matsuo, and Fujio Kurokawa, ”New Solar Cell Power Supply System Using a Boost Type
Bidirectional DC-DC Converter,” IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elec., 31, 1, 51-55, 1984.
Toshihiko Noguchi, Shigenori Togashi, and Ryo Nakamoto, “Short-Current Pulse-Based
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method for Multiple Photovoltaic-and-Converter Module System,”IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elec., 49, 1, 217-223, 2002.

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