Super-twisting MPPT control for grid-connected PV/battery system using higher order sliding mode observer

In recent times, photovoltaic (PV) power generation has been growing due to increase in energy demand. In grid-connected mode, achieving maximum power (MP) from the PV array is difficult by using conventional techniques due to various reasons like low tracking efficiency, stability issues, etc. This motivates the design of an appropriate control strategy to obtain the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) to harvest MP from the PV array. This paper proposes a combined higher order sliding mode observer (HOSMO)-super-twisting control (STC) for a grid-connected scenario. A perturb and observe (P &O) technique is employed to generate reference voltage, and a HOSMO is proposed to drive the STC by estimating the inductor current of the PV boost converter. The proposed controller performance is evaluated based on response time across various scenarios, including generation changes, dynamic faults, islanding and resynchronization, and load variations in comparison to other existing controllers. These microgrid test cases have been thoroughly simulated, and their effectiveness has been validated in real-time using OPAL-RT (OP4510).