Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) cell characteristics are highly nonlinear that gives single Maximum Power Point (MPP) on P-V curve under uniform insolation condition. The characteristics and hence MPP point changes with the variation in insolation and temperature. In order to extract a maximum power from PV array, a fuzzy based MPP tracking algorithm is proposed. The algorithm accepts single input that is slope of P-V curve and generates the duty ratio as an output that operates the boost converter to track MPP. The algorithm gives faster convergence by applying variable step in duty ratio and gives accurate MPP. The two stage grid interactive PV system described in this paper supplies active power as well as provides harmonic and reactive power compensation. This additional feature increases the effective utilization of PV inverter and increases the overall efficiency of the system. The simulation results validate the performance and stability of the grid interactive PV system using the proposed algorithm for active current injection as well as harmonics and reactive power compensation.

Keywords: Photovoltaic system, maximum power point tracking, fuzzy logic controller, harmonic elimination, reactive power compensation