Modified flower pollination algorithm for an off-grid solar photovoltaic system

Abstract

This Operating the solar photovoltaic (PV) system at its maximum power point (MPP) under numerous environmental conditions to extract the maximum power is a challenging task. The challenge is to track the MPP, especially under partial shading conditions (PSC), where the formation of multiple MPP occurs in the characteristic curve of a PV array. Nevertheless, achieving this would benefit us with optimal power production, reducing the payback time and initial cost of the PV system. To perform this duty, an electronic circuit ruled by an algorithm is employed. The MPP tracking (MPPT) algorithms can be categorized into conventional and nature inspired. The conventional algorithms can successfully track the MPP under uniform weather conditions (UWC), and unable to identify the global MPP (GMPP) under PSC. However, the nature inspired algorithms possess the ability to perform efficiently under all weather conditions. Considering this strength of nature inspired algorithms, one of the top performing algorithms named as Flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is selected based on its brilliant searching strategy in adjacent and distant locations. In this paper, some structural modifications have been proposed in the FPA to further improve its searching capability and get more quick, accurate and efficient results for the MPPT of solar PV system. Results have proven the superiority of the proposed Modified FPA (MFPA) over the FPA in terms of efficiency, accuracy, tracking speed, energy conservation, economic saving, and payback time. Simulation is performed in MATLAB/Simulink.