A Minimal Drift MPPT Technique for Solar Grid-Tied Multilevel Converter by Multiobjective Swarm

A new multiobjective minimal-drift maximum power point tracking (MOMD-MPPT) technique is introduced to harness maximum power from single photovoltaic (PV) array fed multilevel converter (MLC). A drift in voltage arises with conventional MPPT techniques, which is minimized in this work with a new multiobjective solution. A new swarm optimization algorithm (NSOA) is used for MPPT, which combines the concept of swarm intelligence and pressure gradient force. It provides a minimal drift phenomenon for the solar MLC. Acceleration factor of the swarm particles in NSOA relies on pressure difference and distance. It leads to smoother convergence toward the operating point without trapping in the local minima. The presented algorithm is compared with well-known MPPT algorithms. Simulated results analyze the performance of MOMD-MPPT considering upper and lower voltage drift for PV-fed MLC. Later, this algorithm is experimentally validated for a single PV array-fed grid-tied MLC. Recorded results show that the algorithm has minimal drift and improves the system performance in dynamic solar conditions.