Abstract—Due to the increasing world energy demand, renewable energy systems have been significantly applied in the power generation sector. Among the renewable energy options, photovoltaic system is one of the most popular resources which has been experiencing a huge attention during recent decades. The remarkable advantages, such as static and movement free characteristics, low maintenance costs, and longevity are the primary factors for the popularity of solar generation in the late years. Nevertheless, the low PV conversion efficiency in one side and high PV material cost in the other side have made PV generation comparably expensive system. Consequently, a capable maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is all important to elicit the maximum energy from the production of PV systems. Different researches have been conducted to design a fast, simple and robust MPPT technique under uniform conditions. However, due to the series and parallel connection of PV modules and according to the use of bypass diodes, in the structure of PV modules, a conventional techniques are unable to track a true MPP. Recently, several studies have been undertaken to modify these conventional methods and enable them to track the global MPP under rapidly changing environments and partial shading (PS) conditions. This report concentrates on the state of the art of these methods and their evolution to apply under PS conditions. The recent developments and modifications are analyzed through a comparison based on design complexity, cost, speed and the ability to track the MPP under rapid environmental variations and PS conditions.

Index Terms—Energy efficiency, maximum power point tracking, partial shading condition, photovoltaic system.

Mohammadmehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Swarna Kumary, Aman Maung Than Oo, Alex Stojcevski are with School of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. Arash Mohamadi is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Cite:Mohammadmehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Arash Mohamadi, Swarna Kumary, Aman Maung Than Oo, Alex Stojcevski, "A Comparative Study on Procedure and State of the Art of Conventional Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques for Photovoltaic System," International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 402-414, 2014.