Research on the MPPT of Photovoltaic Power Generation Based on Improved WOA and P&O under Partial Shading Conditions

Abstract

Partial shading conditions (PSCs) caused by uneven illumination become one of the most common problems in photovoltaic (PV) systems, which can make the PV power-voltage (P-V) characteristics curve show multipeaks. Traditional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods have shortcomings in tracking to the global maximum power point (GMPP), resulting in a dramatic decrease in output power. In order to solve the above problems, intelligent algorithms are used in MPPT. However, the existing intelligent algorithms have some disadvantages, such as slow convergence speed and large search oscillation. Therefore, an improved whale algorithm (IWOA) combined with the P&O (IWOA-P&O) is proposed for the MPPT of PV power generation in this paper. Firstly, IWOA is used to track the range interval of the GMPP, and then P&O is used to accurately find the MPP in that interval. Compared with other algorithms, simulation results show that this method has an average tracking efficiency of 99.79% and an average tracking time of 0.16 s when tracking GMPP. Finally, experimental verification is conducted, and the results show that the proposed algorithm has better MPPT performance compared to popular particle swarm optimization (PSO) and PSO-P&O algorithms.