Comparison between Kalman filter and incremental conductance algorithm for optimizing photovoltaic energy

The purpose of this paper is to present a performance comparison between two maximum power point tracking algorithms. These two algorithms are incremental conductance (INC) which is an improved version of the perturb and observe algorithm, and the second algorithm is the Kalman filter applied to a photovoltaic system. In this work, a photovoltaic panel is modeled in PSIM tool; a Boost converter controlled by the maximum power point tracker is put between the PV panel and the load. Then the two algorithms are implemented by using C language and C block provided by PSIM tool. Next, several tests under stable and variable environmental conditions are made for the two algorithms, and results show a better performance of the Kalman filter compared to the INC in terms of response time, efficiency and steady-state oscillations.