Maximum Power Point Tracking of PV System under Partial Shading Condition

The performance of the photovoltaic panel depends on atmospheric conditions such as temperature, irradiance etc. The conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms like Hill climbing, Perturb and Observe (P&O), Incremental Conductance (INC) are simple and efficient techniques to track MPP during uniform irradiance condition. However, under partially shaded conditions (PSC), these conventional algorithms fail to recognize global maximum power point (GMPP) and gets trapped in one of the local maximum power point (LMPP). To effectively track global maximum power point (GMPP) under partially shaded conditions heuristic algorithms like Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) can be used instead of conventional Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms. This paperproposes a simpler fast-converging maximum power point tracking technique (MPP) for Photovoltaic (PV) system under partially shaded condition (PSC) using ACO.