Energy and Power Engineering, 2016, 8, 349-366 http://www.scirp.org/journal/epe ISSN Online: 1947-3818 ISSN Print: 1949-243X DOI: 10.4236/epe.2016.811031 November 30, 2016 MPPT Design Using PSO Technique for Photovoltaic System Control Comparing to Fuzzy Logic and P&O Controllers O. Ben Belghith 1 , L. Sbita 1 , F. Bettaher 2 1 Research Unit of Photovoltaic, Wind and Geothermal Systems, National Engineering School of Gabes (ENIG), University of Gabes, Rue Omar Ibn-Elkhattab, Zrig, Gabes, Tunisia 2 Hatem Bettaher Research Unit of Computing, Networks, Communication Systems and Mathematics, IResCoMath, Higher Institute of Informatics and Multimedia of Gabes (ISIMG), University of Gabes, Gabes, Tunisia Abstract The Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) is the optimum operating point of a photovoltaic module. It plays a very important role to obtain the maximum power of a solar panel as it allows an optimal use of a photovoltaic system, regardless of irrad- iation and temperature variations. In this research, we present a novel technique to improve the control’s performances optimization of the system consisting of a pho- tovoltaic panel, a buck converter and a load. Simulations of different parts of the sys- tem are developed under Matlab/Simulink, thus allowing a comparison between the performances of the three studied controllers: “Fuzzy TS”, “P&O” and “PSO”. The three algorithms of MPPT associated with these techniques are tested in different meteorological conditions. The obtained results, in different operating conditions, reveal a clear improvement of controlling performances of MPPT of a photovoltaic system when the PSO tracking technique is used. Keywords Photovoltaic System, MPPT Controller, Buck Converter, Perturb and Observe “P&O”, Fuzzy Logic “Fuzzy TS”, Particle Swarm Optimization “PSO” 1. Introduction The photovoltaic solar energy deriving from the direct transformation of a part of solar irradiation into electric energy faces, inter alia, a maximization problem of power transfer of the photovoltaic generator (PVG) to the load. This is due to the non-linear feature of the electric characteristics I-V (Current-Voltage) of photovoltaic cells [1]. How to cite this paper: Belghith, O.B., Sbita, L. and Bettaher, F. (2016) MPPT Design Using PSO Technique for Photovol- taic System Control Comparing to Fuzzy Logic and P&O Controllers. Energy and Power Engineering, 8, 349-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/epe.2016.811031 Received: September 28, 2016 Accepted: November 27, 2016 Published: November 30, 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access