A simulation of PV module and MPPT control based on Matlab/Simulink

The simulation model of PV module, which is based on Simulink software, the mathematical model and the equivalent circuit of PV module, is established in this paper. This PV module model can be used to show the output characteristics of PV module under different irradiations and temperatures. Moreover, this model can be extended to various parameters of PV modules and used to study parallel and serial characteristics of PV module. The output characteristics of PV module, which is affected greatly by light irradiation and ambient temperature, has obvious non-linear features. Therefore, a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) is needed. Compared with perturbation and observation (P&Q) control method and other MPPT control methods, incremental conductance (IncCond) method may be unease to be adopted because it needs a high-performance controller which is costliness. However, as IncCond method is suitable for the irradiation situation of both rapid and slow changes, it has important research meanings. Meanwhile, aiming at the disadvantage of a fixed tracking step size, a improved control method is put forward and simulated in this paper. Finally the simuliation results verify the accuracy and superiority of the improved IncCond method.