Biased Maximum Power Extraction from a PV during Low Irradiation and a Highly Stiffed Grid Condition

Growing electrical demand is to be met dynamically through conventional and nonconventional power sources. PV power generation plays a vital role. Because of low irradiation and overcast weather condition, the installed PV sources are not fully utilized. Many research papers were presented to extract maximum power from PV using various MPPT techniques. This paper presents a new idea of implementing a biased transformer to extract maximum power during the above condition. The proposed method uses three winding transformers to give sufficient biased voltage and current. The biased current and voltage were obtained from the grid that is fed to the primary winding-two of the three winding transformers through the controller. A 10 kW panel is checked for low irradiation and overcast weather condition using the biased MPPT technique. The proposed method is compared with the conventional incremental conductance method with power, cost, and efficiency analysis. Simulation was carried out in MATLAB/Simulink software and experimentally evaluated through a suitable hardware setup.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a new method of extracting maximum power from PV systems under low irradiation and overcast weather conditions using a biased transformer. By using three winding transformers to provide biased voltage and current, the proposed method obtains biased current and voltage from the grid and feeds them to the primary winding-two of the three winding transformers. The method is compared with the conventional incremental conductance method in terms of power, cost, and efficiency analysis.