The main components of a Stand-Alone Photovoltaic (SAPV) system consists of PV array, DC-DC converter, load and the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control algorithm. MPPT algorithm was used for extracting maximum available power from PV module under a particular environmental condition by controlling the duty ratio of DC-DC converter. Based on maximum power transfer theorem, by changing the duty cycle, the load resistance as seen by the source is varied and matched with the internal resistance of PV module at maximum power point (MPP) so as to transfer the maximum power. Under sudden changes in solar irradiance, the selection of MPPT algorithm’s sampling time (TS_MPPT) is very much depends on two main components of the converter circuit namely; inductor and capacitor. As the value of these components increases, the settling time of the transient response for PV voltage and current will also increase linearly. Consequently, TS_MPPT needs to be increased for accurate MPPT and therefore reduce the tracking speed. This work presents a design considerations of DC-DC Boost Converter used in SAPV system for fast and accurate MPPT algorithm. The conventional Hill Climbing (HC) algorithm has been applied to track the MPP when subjected to sudden changes in solar irradiance. By selecting the optimum value of the converter circuit components, a fast and accurate MPPT especially during sudden changes in irradiance has been realized.

Transient stability analysis has become one of the major analyses in the power system to ensure the system stability to withstand a major disturbance. The effect of transient occurrence can lead to malfunction of electronic control equipment. Transient analysis can be conducted using simulation software package. One of the commercial simulation software package that used by industry worldwide is Siemens Power System Simulation for Engineering (PSS/E). This research paper highlights the usage of PSS/E to analyze Sarawak's Grid System stability using the simplest dynamic model that has been embedded into the program. To observe transient analysis using PSS/E, basic machine model such as generator, exciter and governor were used by varying default data in the program to find the best simulation output. This paper also analyzed the theory of critical clearing time (CCT) of fault occurrence between a transmission line near to the generator and far from the generator. CCT appears to be lesser when the fault occurs at a transmission line near to the generator. On the contrary, when fault occurs far from the generator, the duration of CCT is greater. The stability of the system is observed based on the machine rotor angle, machine speed, output electrical power and terminal voltage.

Transient Stability Analysis (TSA) is a major analysis in the operation of power systems, due to the increasing stress on power system networks. One of the main goals of this analysis is to gather critical information, such as critical clearing time (tCCT) of the circuit breakers for faults in the system. tCCT is defined as the maximum time between the fault initiation and its clearing, such that the power system is transiently stable. This paper presents a transient stability analysis of the IEEE 14 bus test system using Dynamic Computation for Power Systems (DCPS) software package. This C++ based software package has the ability to handle systems up to 1000 buses and 250 generators, providing an alternative to expensive commercial software packages. To analyze the effect of the distance of the fault location and critical clearing time on the system stability, a three-phase fault has been applied at five different locations in the system. The stability of the system has been observed based on the simulation graphs of terminal voltage, machine's rotor angle, machine's speed and output electrical power. The simulation results showed that tCCT decreases as the fault location becomes closer to the main generator.

With the proliferation of numerous soft computing (SC)–based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms for photovoltaic (PV) systems, determining which algorithm performs better than others is becoming increasingly difficult. This is primarily due to the absence of standardized methods to benchmark their performances using consistent and systematic procedures. Moreover, the module technology, power ratings, and environmental conditions reported by numerous publications all differ. Based on these concerns, this paper presents a critical evaluation of the five most important and recent SC-based MPPTs, namely, genetic algorithm (GA), cuckoo search (CS), particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), and evolutionary programming (EP). To perform a fair comparison, the initialization, selection, and stopping criteria for all methods are fixed in similar conditions. Thus, the performance is determined by its respective reproduction process. Simulation tests are performed using the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The performance of each algorithm is compared and evaluated based on its speed of convergence, accuracy, complexity, and success rate. The results indicate that EP appears to be the most promising and encouraging SC algorithm to be used in MPPT for a PV system under the multimodal partial shading condition.

This paper presents Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm for stand-alone Photovoltaic (PV) system using Evolutionary Programming (EP) method. The EP has not been used for this system before, thus this work can be considered as new. The basic idea of applying EP for stand-alone PV System based MPPT is given. Simulation of PV system is carried out using Matlab/Simulink environment. In particular, the partial shading condition is addressed. To evaluate the accuracy of the algorithm, two statistical analysis namely; mean absolute error (MAE) and standard deviation (STD) have been carried out. The results are compared with MPPT using the Genetic Algorithm (GA). It was found that EP has a much better convergence speed, tracking accuracy and higher robustness compared to GA.

This paper presents comparative performance between Fuzzy Logic controller (FLC) and Proportional Integral Derivative controller (PIDC) on DC/DC Buck-Boost Converter. The evaluation of the output has been carried out and compared by software simulation using Matlab/Simulink. The controllers performance are compared based on dynamic respond of the controllers in term of rise time, settling time, overshoot, peak time and voltage deviations. DC/DC Buck-Boost Converter in this study is operated in Buck (step-down) and Boost (step-up) modes.