Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaic
Using Only Single Current Sensor
Toshihiko Noguchi, and Hiroyuki Matsumoto
Nagaoka University of Technology
1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan
Phone: +81-258-47-9510, Fax: +81-258-47-9500
e-mail: tnoguchi@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp
URL: pelab.nagaokaut.ac.jp/
Keywords: «Converter control» «Estimation techniques» «Modeling» «Renewable energy systems»
«Sensors» «Solar cell systems»
Abstract
This paper describes a novel strategy of maximum-power-point tracking for photovoltaic power
generation systems. A unique feature of this method is capability to seek the maximum power point
using only a single current sensor, i.e., a Hall-effect CT. Output power of the photovoltaic can be
estimated with an average value and ripple amplitude of the detected current. A conventional
hill-climbing method is employed to seek the maximum power point, using the output power obtained
from only the current sensor. In this paper, not only a theoretical aspect of the proposed method is
described, but also experimental results are presented to prove feasibility of the method.
1. Introduction
Photovoltaic power generation systems have intensively been investigated as an
environment-friendly technology since 1970s because of their advantages of infinite energy resources
and no CO2 emission. However, low efficiency and high cost per unit output power are the biggest
problem of the systems; which prevents the systems from being extensively used so far.
A technique to utilize effectively the photovoltaic is known as a maximum-power- point
tracking (M
) method, which makes it possible to acquire as much power as possible from the
photovoltaic. Since an electric characteristic of the output power to the operating voltage or current
has a convex property, there exists only one optimum operating point on the power-voltage (or
current) curve. The MPPT is a method to let the controller operate at the above-mentioned optimum
operating point. There have been various kinds of MPPT methods reported and the most common
technique of them is a hill-climbing method, which seeks the optimum operating point by changing the
operating voltage or current until the power becomes the maximum [1]-[4]. Therefore, this method
essentially requires power calculation using both the voltage sensor and the current sensor.
On the other hand, several other proposals have been made, which are completely different from
the conventional hill-climbing based MPPT methods. Some of them determine the optimum
operating current on the basis of a short-current detection of the photovoltaic [5], [6]. These methods
utilize a property of the photovoltaic of which optimum operating current is proportional to its short
current. One of them has a monitor photovoltaic cell to detect its short-current and another has a
switch that intermittently and directly shorts the main photovoltaic. These methods do not require
the voltage sensor but the monitor photovoltaic or the short-circuit switch must be implemented in the
power converter.
As described above, several sensors and/or additional equipment are indispensable to achieve
MPPT in the conventional system, which makes the system configuration considerably complicated.
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.1
Table I Ratings of GL418-TF
Rated maximum power 6.5 (W)
Rated output voltage 6 (V)
Fig. 1: Example of power-voltage characteristics.
0 50 100 150 200 250
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
20 (℃) 4000 (lx)
20 (℃) 22000 (lx)
60 (℃) 22000 (lx)
O
ut
pu
t P
ow
er
(W
)
Operating Current (mA)
This paper focuses on information included in current ripples, which are inherently generated by
switching operation of the power converter, and proposes a technique capable to seek the
maximum-power- point with only a single current sensor. Reducing sensor count or other equipment
contributes to simplify circuit implementation and to reduce system cost. This paper discusses a
theoretical aspect of the proposed technique and presents experimental results to demonstrate an
excellent MPPT operation of the system.
2. Principle of Hill-Climbing Method
As described in the previous section, it is indispensable to operate the photovoltaic at the
optimum operating point where the maximum power is available; hence the most important issue is
how to find the optimum operating point in dealing with the photovoltaic. Fig. 1 shows an example
of power-current characteristics measured with a commercially available photovoltaic panel (Showa
Shell GL418-TF), of which electrical specifications are listed in Table I. As shown in the graph, the
power-current characteristics of the photovoltaic have hill-shaped upward convexity and have different
maximum points to be sought by the MPPT controller, depending on irradiance and temperature. In
the hill-climbing method based system, gradient of the output power is directly calculated by changing
the operating current and a peak of the hill is sought until the gradient is almost zero, where the
maximum power is available. Since this method is based on actual output power detection of the
photovoltaic, MPPT can be achieved even if the optimum operating point varies with the irradiance
and/or the temperature. Also, the method is adaptive to environmental disturbances, e.g., surface
contamination of the panel, electrical performance degradation over years, and so forth. However, it
takes a considerably long time to seek the maximum power point because of the successive seeking
operation as described above.
3. Power Estimation Algorithm Using Single Sensor Information
3. 1. Power Circuit Configuration
Fig. 2 shows power circuit configuration to be discussed in this paper. The system consists of
a photovoltaic panel, a DC/DC converter, and a load resistor. The DC/DC converter is a simple boost
chopper that has only a single current sensor. This circuit operates in a switching mode and is
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.2
regarded as a non linear system; thus analysis of the circuit is complicated. Therefore, an averaged
state variable method is introduced to analyze the circuit, which allows dealing with the circuit as a
linear system. In the linearization process, the photovoltaic is regarded as an equivalent circuit
composed with a DC voltage source and a series connected internal resistance. It should be noted
that both the equivalent voltage source and the series resistance are variant with respect to the
operating point of the photovoltaic.
3. 2. Averaged State-Variable Equation of Power Circuit
Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b) show equivalent circuits in an on-state and in an off state of the boost
chopper. , and are an equivalent resistance corresponding to reactor losses, an on-state
resistance of the main switching device and an equivalent resistance of the diode forward drop,
respectively. From the equivalent circuits shown in Fig. 3, the following state variable equation can
be obtained in the on-state, where the state variables are a capacitor voltage , a reactor current
and an output voltage , i.e., :
Lr Sr Dr
ov
Cv Li[ ]ToLC viv=x
PVVONONdt
d bxAx += , (1)
where
+−
−−
=
2
11
ON
100
01
011
CR
L
rr
L
CCR
L
SL
PV
A , and
=
0
0
1
1
ON
CRPV
b .
On the other hand, the state variable equation in the off-state is as follows:
PVVOFFOFFdt
d bxAx += , (2)
where
−
−+−
−−
=
22
11
OFF
110
11
011
CRC
LL
rr
L
CCR
L
DL
PV
A , and
=
0
0
1
1
OFF
CRPV
b .
Assuming that the averaged state-variable vector is [ ]ToLC viv=x , the above equation can be
transformed into the following expression:
PVVbxA
x +=
dt
d , (3)
where
′−
′−′++−
−−
=
′+=
22
11
OFFON
110
11
011
CR
D
C
D
LL
DrDrr
L
CCR
DD
L
DSL
PV
AAA
, and
=′+=
0
0
1
1
OFFON
CR
DD
PV
bbb .
In the above equation, D and ( DD )−=′ 1 are duty factors of the on-state and the off-state,
respectively. Both D and are less than unity. D′
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.3
Fig. 2: Photovoltaic and boost chopper.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3: Equivalent circuits of boost chopper.
(a) Equivalent circuit in on-state. (b) Equivalent circuit in off-state.
V LRPVV
PVR Lr L
1C 2C
Li
Dr
cv ovPV
PVR Lr L
1C 2C LR
Li
cv ovSr
V RPV PV,
C1 C2
L
R L
I IL L,∆
PV
D
S
3. 3. Current Ripple Equation
Since 0dtd =x
oV
in a steady state, the capacitor voltage , the reactor current and the
output voltage in the steady state can be expressed as
CV LI
′
′+′++
′++′++=
DR
DRDrDrr
DRRDrDrr
V
V
I
V LDSL
LPVDSL
PV
o
L
C
2
2
2 1 . (4)
Ripple amplitude of the reactor current Li∆ is derived by multiplying (1) by on-state duration as
follows:
+−=∆ LSLCSL iL
rrv
L
DTi 1 . (5)
Approximating the capacitor voltage and the reactor current to those values in the steady state as
obtained in (4), steady state ripple amplitude of the reactor current LI∆ is derived as the following
equation:
( )22 DRrDrDrDRRDrDrr VLDTI LSDSLPVDSL PVSL ′+−′+′++′++=∆ , (6)
where is a switching period. ST
3. 4. Power Estimation with Only Current Information
The output power of the photovoltaic can be estimated as follows, paying attention to that ,
, , and are all unknown:
PVV
PVR CV oV LR
( ) 22 LDSLL
SL
o
o IDrrIIDT
L
R
VW ′−+∆== . (7)
It should be noted that D , and are known variables because they are manipulating D′ ST
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.4
Fig. 4: Proposed MPPT technique.
Fig. 5: Current ripple detector.
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
Li∆
Li
Maximum peak holder
Minimum peak holder
Maximum peak
holder
Minimum peak
holder
+
-
Average
Power
Estimator
and MPPT
Controller
LI∆
LI
Digital Signal Processor
ADMC328-20MHz
Li
Gate
Signal
quantities specified by the controller and that , and are variables of which values are
preliminarily available. Therefore, (7) represents that the output power can be estimated with
information of and from only the current sensor. The hill-climbing method allows MPPT
by using the estimated output power.
L Sr Dr
Li∆ LI
4. MPPT Operation with Single Current Sensor
4. 1. Proposed MPPT System Configuration
Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of the proposed MPPT technique. As previously described, the
system implementation is simplified because the photovoltaic power can be estimated with no voltage
sensors and no short-current switches. The Hall-effect CT detects the reactor current including its
ripples, and the ripple amplitude and the average current are calculated with some analog hardware
and DSP (Analog Devices ADMC328-20MHz) based software. Since the switching frequency of the
chopper is 10 (kHz), the current ripple detector is composed with a simple Op-amp based circuit as
shown in Fig. 5, instead of use of high-speed A/D converters. By using this analog circuit, both the
maximum peak and the minimum peak of the reactor current are held. The average current is
obtained from sum of the both peak values, while the current ripple amplitude is calculated by
difference between the two peak values.
LI
LI∆
4. 2. Operation of Current Ripple Detector
Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b) show operations of the current ripple detector when the ripple amplitude is
changed stepwise. Fig. 6(a) corresponds to the case of increasing the ripple amplitude, and Fig. 6(b)
is the case of decreasing. As can be seen in Fig. 6(a), the current ripple detector properly tracks step
changes of the ripple amplitude without large delays. However, Fig. 6(b) indicates that the current
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.5
(a) (b)
Fig. 6: Responses of current ripple detector.
(a) In case of increasing ripple. (b) In case of decreasing ripple.
Table II Ratings of S-270A
Rated maximum power 35 (W)
Rated output voltage 16.6 (V)
(a) (b)
Fig. 7: Experimental results of measured and estimated output power.
(a) In case of low irradiance (251-315 (W/m2)). (b) In case of high irradiance (552-643 (W/m2)).
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
O
ut
pu
t P
ow
er
(W
)
Duty Factor
Measured
Estimated
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
O
ut
pu
t P
ow
er
(W
)
Duty Factor
Measured
Estimated
0.000 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0.020
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Minimum peak
Maximum peak
Current ripple
Cu
rr
en
t (
A
)
Time (s)
0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Minimum peak
Maximum peak
Current ripple
Cu
rr
en
t (
A)
Time (s)
ripple detector requires approximately 8 (ms) and 14 (ms) to track the new maximum value and the
new minimum value, respectively. These delays are caused by discharge time constant of the
capacitors. However, the delays hardly affect the MPPT performance of the system because solar
irradiation slowly varies in a few seconds.
4. 3. Evaluation of Estimated Power
Fig. 7 shows experimental results of measured output power and estimated output power, where
the duty factor of the boost chopper is manually changed. A test photovoltaic panel is S-270A
released by Sharp Co. whose electrical ratings are listed in Table II. When irradiance is relatively
low as shown in Fig. 7(a), small error can be observed in a low-duty range but the estimated result
agrees well with the measured values in the whole. It is confirmed that the maximum power point is
observed at in both estimated and measured results. Fig. 7(b) shows another experimental 40.D =
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.6
Fig. 8: Experimental result of proposed MPPT method.
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
2.0 (kW/m2)
1.5 (kW/m2)
1.0 (kW/m2)
O
ut
pu
t P
ow
er
(W
)
Duty Factor
Operating Points
result in the case of relatively high irradiance. As can be seen in the figure, excellent agreement is
confirmed between the estimated and measured output power. Both results indicate that the
maximum power can be obtained at 70.D = . Since the optimum operating points are sought by the
hill-climbing method as described before, absolute accuracy in estimating the output power is
unnecessary. In other words, it is possible to seek the maximum power point as long as both the
estimated and the measured characteristics have their peaks at the same duty factor.
Some errors can be seen between the estimated and measured output power in low duty factor
range in Fig. 7. It is inferred that the resistance variation in the diode forward drop is a cause of
the estimation error because is assumed to be constant in (7). When the duty factor is low, the
diode terminal voltage does not saturate due to a low current, which leads increase of the equivalent
resistance. Another cause of the estimation error must be caused by an error in detecting the current
with the Hall-effect CT.
Dr
Dr
4. 4. Experimental Result of Proposed MPPT System
An experimental test was conducted to confirm performance of the proposed technique, using a
test photovoltaic of GL418-TF listed in Table I. During the experiment, surface temperature of the test
photovoltaic panel was kept almost constant at 50 (°C). Fig. 8 shows that the MPPT controller based
on the proposed technique successfully reached the maximum power point even though the irradiance
varies widely. As can be confirmed in this experimental result, the MPPT operation is possible with
only a single current sensor.
4. 5. Discussion on Parameter Sensitivity
Parameter sensitivity was examined through computer simulations. Fig. 9 shows duty factor
error between the estimated and measured maximum power points. According to the power
estimation algorithm expressed as (7), an inductance mismatch may detrimentally affect the estimation
performance and the MPPT performance. Therefore; the duty factor error between the estimated and
measured maximum power points was examined, changing the inductance in (7) from 10 to 200 (%)
of real inductance used in the chopper and changing the load resistance. As can be seen in the figure,
the inductance mismatch hardly affects the MPPT performance and the load resistance is almost
independent of the performance.
5. Conclusion
This paper has proposed a novel strategy of maximum-power-point tracking of a photovoltaic,
which can be implemented with only a single current sensor. Possibility of estimating the output
power of the photovoltaic with only the current sensor has been discussed and been examined through
various experimental tests.
Maximum-Power-Point Tracking Method of Photovoltaics Using Only Single Current Sensor MATSUMOTO Hiroyuki
EPE 2003 - Toulouse ISBN : 90-75815-07-7 P.7
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 9: Parameter sensitivity of proposed method.
(a) . (b) )( 20 Ω=LR )( 50 Ω=LR . (c) )( 100 Ω=LR .
0 50 100 150 200
-0.02
-0.01
0.00
0.01
0.02
D
ut
y
Fa
ct
or
E
rro
r b
et
w
ee
n
M
ax
im
um
P
ow
er
P
oi
nt
s
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)
0 50 100 150 200
-0.02
-0.01
0.00
0.01
0.02
D
ut
y
Fa
ct
or
E
rr
or
b
et
w
ee
n
M
ax
im
um
P
ow
er
P
oi
nt
s
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)
0 50 100 150 200
-0.02
-0.01
0.00
0.01
0.02
D
ut
y
Fa
ct
or
E
rr
or
b
et
w
ee
n
M
ax
im
um
P
ow
er
P
oi
nt
s
Parameter Mismatch of Inductance (%)
In the theoretical analysis, it has been clarified that the output power can be estimated with
information only from the current sensor, i.e., an average value and ripple amplitude of the current.
Also, a simple circuit configuration to make the current-ripple detection possible has been illustrated.
Operating characteristics of the current ripple detector have been examined and proper
estimation result of the output power has been confirmed through the experimental tests.
Consequently, the MPPT using only the single current sensor has been achieved with excellent
accuracy.
References
[1] O. Wasynczuk, “Dynamic Behavior of a Class of Photovoltaic Power Systems,” IEEE Trans. on Power
App. Sys., 102, 9, 3031-3037, 1983.
[2] Katsumi Ohniwa, and Tsuyoshi Sato, ”A Simplified Maximum Power Tracking Method for Photovoltaic
Solar System,” IEE-Japan Trans. on Power Sys., 106-B, 7, 72-78, 1984.
[3] I. H. Altas, and A. M. Sharaf, “A Novel On-Line MPP Search Algorithm for PV Arrays,” IEEE Trans. on