Power optimization in partially shaded ohotovoltaic systems

Abstract

The Power-Voltage characteristic of a photovoltaic (PV) array exhibits non-linear behaviour when exposed to uniform solar irradiance. Maximum Power Point (MPP) tracking is challenging due to the varying climatic conditions in a solar PV system. Moreover, the tracking algorithm becomes more complicated due to the presence of multiple peaks in the power voltage characteristics under the condition of partial shading. This research is devoted to the Stochastic Beam Search (SBS) based algorithm and Stochastic Hill Climbing (SHC) for a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) at a partial shading condition in the PV system. To give a partial shading effect over the entire array of a PV system, a mast is placed in front of the modules. The modules in the array are connected in such a way that one does not need to rewire the electrical connection during the rearrangement of modules. It is validated that the power generation performance of an array under a moving shading condition is increased. Furthermore, it is observed that the SHC method outperforms the SBS method in the MMP tracking.