ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF MPPT BASED ON FIREFLY ALGORITHM

• Main Author: Bayu Wicaksono, Ardian
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/87700
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

PT PLN (Persero) is an electricity provider company in Indonesia that generates energy using power plants with various energy sources. One of these sources is solar energy, which has been widely used in Indonesia due to its tropical climate and abundant sunlight. This energy is already being utilized by commercial entities, such as residential homes, which impacts PT PLN (Persero) as an electricity provider. As a result, PT PLN (Persero) must view this development as a challenge in order to survive in this rapidly evolving era by offering rooftop solar power plants (PLTS) or solar panels that convert solar energy into electrical power in the form of current, which can be rented by customers. However, in the utilization of solar energy, the maximum power output has not yet been fully achieved, so a method is needed to optimize the output power of these solar panels, and in this case, a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) is used. The goal of this thesis is to find the maximum power output from the solar panel using a modified firefly algorithm, so that the output power can be maximized and the search for maximum power can be completed in a short time. This algorithm works by spreading duty cycles and comparing the output power of each duty cycle spread, which will eventually lead to the best output power. The results of this research show that the time required to find the maximum power is 2.5 times faster compared to the firefly algorithm. Additionally, in this thesis, the system is simplified by using only one sensor, which is a voltage sensor, and the current value is estimated based on the photovoltaic output voltage, which is then processed by a microcontroller. The results of this simulation will be compared with those of a simulation that uses a current sensor to validate whether the reduction in sensors still results in the maximum photovoltaic output power.