Design and Simulation of Photovoltaic Water Pumping System

This paper deals with the design and simulation of a simple but efficient photovoltaic water pumping system. It provides theoretical studies of photovoltaic and modelling techniques using equivalent electric circuits. The system employs the maximum power point tracker (MPPT). The investigation includes discussion of various MPPT algorithms and control methods. PSpice simulations verify the DC-DC converter design. MATLAB simulations perform comparative tests of two popular MPPT algorithms using actual irradiance data. The thesis decides on the output sensing direct control method because it requires few sensors. This allows a lower cost system. Each subsystem is modelled in order to simulate the whole system in MATLAB. It employs SIMULINK to model a DC pump motor, and the model is transferred into MATLAB. Then, MATLAB simulations verify the system and functionality of MPPT. Simulations also make comparisons with the system without MPPT in terms of total energy produced and total volume of water pumped per day. The results validate that MPPT can significantly increase the efficiency and the performance of P V water pumping system compared to the system without MPPT.