Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Sliding Mode Control Techniques for DC-DC Boost Converter for PV System Under Transient Conditions

The PV array has low conversion efficiency and requires the techniques to meet the specific load-demand from the source. One popular technique is the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). This operation depends upon various atmospheric and working conditions, i.e., solar irradiance and temperature. This paper objects to regulate the output voltage of a boost converter for constant voltage load application which takes power from a solar panel. In order to regulate the output voltage of a boost converter a Proportional-Integral (PI) control technique for boost converter is designed and implemented. The PI controller is tuned with Zeigler-Nichols method for satisfactory results. As the PI control scheme is a linear control scheme and easy to implement, it is used widely in industrial applications, but is sluggish in nature and does not respond well to frequent changes due to system inertia. A robust nonlinear control based on Sliding Model Control (SMC) technique is also designed and implemented to cope up with the variations in the load and supply voltage. It is observed by detailed simulation studies that SMC adapts unpredictable changes in system parameters and maintains the system performance, so best suited for variable structure systems.