Abstract
This paper is introducing a smart Maximum Power Point Tracking technique for grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy system. The proposed is compared with perturb and observe (P&O) to evaluate and assess its performance. Grid-connected PV energy system in this research is connected to the utility grid through dc/dc boost converter and three-phase PWM converter. The whole system is simulated in Simulink. The maximum power extracted from the PV array under rapidly varying atmospheric and operating conditions is investigated using the proposed technique and state of the art circuits. The proposed MPPT technique is controlling boost converter and the PWM inverter to track the maximum power. The FLC is more efficient and quick in response for the maximum power tracking than P&O technique. Also, the oscillation around maximum power of P&O technique is higher than FLC technique. The PWM used to enhance the MPPT is used also to control the active and reactive power to utility grid. The outer dc-link voltage control loop is used to control active power by maintaining a constant voltage on the dc-link capacitor while the inner current control loop is used to the reactive power by setting the q-axis current reference to zero value for unity power factor achievement. The results proved the superiority, high accuracy and efficient performance of the FLC compared to P&O in dynamic, steady-state response and active and reactive power control to the utility grid.