Maximum Power Point Tracking and Performance Improvements of Photovoltaic Generator Powered DC Motor pump System based on Fuzzy Logic Controller

The maximum extractable power of diode junction photovoltaic generators exhibits a nonlinear V-I characteristic that varies with solar radiation intensity, temperature, and load conditions. In PV generator applications, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller was used to automatically extract the maximum power, regardless of the PV system's actual instantaneous conditions. The P&O and the incremental conductance, out of the various MPPT approaches previously proposed, have an advantage in low-cost implementation, but their drawback is having high oscillations. In this thesis, a fuzzy logic control (FLC) method is presented for maximizing the output of a standalone PV generator for a water pumping system. A solar panel, a DC-DC buck converter, a fuzzy MPP tracker, a permanent DC motor drive, and a centrifugal pump make up the PV generator system. The coupled centrifugal pump's motor speed and water discharge rate maximized because of the duty ratio of the buck chopper being adjusted by the fuzzy logic controller to meet the load impedance of the photovoltaic generator. The control approach has been modeled in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and simulation results have indicated that, when compared to a directly connected PV-generator-energized pumping system, it has greatly enhanced the system's power extraction performance under various sunshine situations. Keywords: Centrifugal pump, Diode junction photovoltaic, DC-DC buck converter, DC motor, FLC, MPPT