Analysis of solar PV system under-partial shading condition

Abstract

Renewable energy system utilizes those resources which are abundantly available and eco-friendly in nature. The most favorable renewable energy source is the photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Solar energy is the most important driving force for the system of ecology. The amount of power extracted from the PV array can be affected by temperature, solar irradiation, dust accumulation, wind speed, PV array configuration and shading pattern. Often, the PV arrays are completely or partially shadowed and has been recognized as a major challenging concern which can reduce the output power of PV arrays due to mismatching power loss between the PV modules and also represents multiple Maximum Power Points (MPPs) in the electrical characteristics (I–V and P–V characteristics). PV array characteristics has various peaks under partial shading condition and maximum power point algorithms are need to trained to find peak with maximum power. The main objective of the paper is to model, simulate and study the two type of PV array configuration series-parallel and Total Cross Tied (TCT) under normal and shading condition.  The performance analysis of the PV array configurations is carried out by considering P-V and I-V characteristics. The paper also proposes improved Pert & observes MPPT technique to track global maxima. The PV characteristics performance is executed on MATLAB/Simulink and the results are discussed in detail.