• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1259-1269
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• 2019

PV system performance is dependent on different irradiations and temperature values in addition to the capability of the employed PV inverter / maximum power point tracker (MPPT) circuit or algorithm. Therefore, it would be appropriate to use a PV simulator capable of producing identical repeatable conditions regardless of the weather to evaluate the performance of inverter / MPPT circuits and algorithms. In accordance with this purpose, a photovoltaic (PV) array simulator is presented in this paper. The simulator is designed to generate current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V) curves of a PV panel. Series connected cascaded modules constitute the basic part of the simulator. This feature also allows for the modeling of PV arrays since the number of modules can be increased and high voltage values can be reached with the simulator. In addition, the curves obtained at the simulator output become similar to the actual curves of sample PV panels with an increase in the number of modules. In order to show the validity of the proposed simulator, it was simulated for various situations such as panels under full irradiance and partial shading conditions. After completing simulations, experiments were realized to support the simulation study. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed simulator will be very useful for researchers to carry out PV studies under laboratory conditions.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2022

The differential power processor (DPP) system is used to prevent a decrease in the total power generation due to the partial shading of photovoltaic modules. Compared with traditional series strings and full power processing (FPP) converter solutions, the DPP converter system shows advantages in terms of modularization process, volume, and transformation losses. However, the system has a limitation in that the power generation process of differential power processors produces lower power under certain irradiation conditions. This paper proposes a structure and operating algorithm for differential power processing modules that can use a single power converter for multiple strings. The operational algorithm for the differential power regulators allows the maximum power generation to be maintained in comparison with conventional series-connected and differential power processing methods even under various partial shading conditions. The operation algorithm of the proposed DPP is verified by Matlab/Simulink simulations.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.21-28
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• 2014

This paper provides the up to date review of the shading effects on PV module performance and the associated detection algorithm related to the maximum power point tracking. It includes the brief explanations of the MMP variations due to the shading occurrence on the PV modules. Review of experimental and simulation studies highlighting the significant impacts of shading on PV efficiencies were presented. The literature indicates that even the partial shading of a single cell can greatly drop the entire module voltage and power efficiency. The MMP tracking approaches were also reviewed in this study. Both conventional and advanced soft computing methods such as ANN, FLC and EA were described for the proper tracking of MMP under shaded conditions. This paper would be the basic source and the comprehensive information associated with the shading effects and relevant MPP tracking technique.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.21-22
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• 2015

The maximum power point of a photovoltaic array alters with changing atmospheric conditions, temperature conditions, shadow conditions, so it is required to track maximum power point. As much as MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) is important in photovoltaic systems, many MPPT techniques have been developed. In this paper, several major existing MPPT methods are comparatively analyzed and novel hybrid MPPT algorithm is proposed. The proposed hybrid MPPT algorithm is developed in combination with traditional MPPT methods to complement each other for improving performance and mitigating partial shading effects. The proposed algorithm is validated by using PISIM simulation tool and experiment in 3kW system.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.769-780
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• 2018

This paper presents an analysis of the power gain under partial shading conditions (PSC) when the partial shade loss is being compensated in photovoltaic(PV) system. To analyze the power gain, our study divides the mismatch loss into partial shade loss and operating point loss. Partial shade loss is defined as the power difference between a normal string and a partially shaded string at the maximum power point (MPP). Operating point loss is defined as the power loss due to the operating point shift while following the MPP of the PV array. Partial shading in a PV system affects the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control by creating multiple MPPs, which causes mismatch losses. Several MPPT algorithms have been suggested to solve the multiple MPP problems. Among these, mismatch compensation algorithms require additional power to compensate for the mismatch loss; however, these algorithms do not consider the gain or loss between the input power required for compensation and the increased output power obtained after compensation. This paper analyzes the power gain resulting from the partial shade loss compensation under PSC, using the V-P curve of the PV system, and verifies that power gain existence by simulation and experiment.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.196-201
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• 2015

This paper presents the impact of partial shading on $CuIn_xGa_{(1-x)}Se_2(CIGS)$ photovoltaic(PV) modules with bypass diodes. When the CIGS PV modules were partially shaded, the modules were under conditions of partial reverse bias. We investigated the characterization of the bypass diode and solar cell properties of the CIGS PV modules when these was partially shaded, comparing the results with those for a crystalline silicon module. In crystalline silicon modules, the bypass diode was operated at a partial shade modules of 1.67 % shading. This protected the crystalline silicon module from hot spot damage. In CIGS thin film modules, on the other hand, the bypass diode was not operated before 20 % shading. This caused damage because of hotspots, which occurred as wormlike defects in the CIGS thin film module. Moreover, the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module was operated fully at 60% shading, while the CIGS thin film module was not operated under these conditions. It is known that the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module operated more slowly than that of the crystalline silicon module; this bypass diode also failed to protect the module from damage. This was because of the reverse saturation current of the CIGS thin film, $1.99{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$, which was higher than that of crystalline silicon, $8.11{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1805-1818
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• 2018

This paper proposes a novel hybrid maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm combining a Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and the conventional Perturb & Observation (P&O) to track/extract the highest amount of power from a solar photovoltaic (SPV) system working under partial shading conditions (PSCs). The proposed hybrid algorithm is based on a WOA which predicts the initial global peak (GP) and is followed by P&O in the final stage to achieve a quicker convergence to a GP. Thus, this hybrid algorithm overcomes the computational burden encountered in a standalone WOA, grey wolf optimization (GWO) and hybrid GWO reported in the literature. The conventional algorithm searches for the maximum power point (MPP) in the predicted region by the WOA. The proposed MPPT technique is modelled and simulated using MATLAB/Simulink for simulating an environment to check its effectiveness in accurately tracking the MPP during the GP region. This hybrid algorithm is compared with a standalone WOA, GWO and hybrid GWO. From the simulating results, it is shown that the proposed algorithm offers high tracking performance and that it increases the output power level of a SPV system under partial shading. The algorithm also verified experimentally on various PSCs.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2013

This study designs and tests a photovoltaic system with distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) methodology using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) controller. Each solar panel in the distributed PV system is equipped with a newly designed DC/DC converter and the panel's voltage output is regulated by a FPGA controller using PI control. Power from each solar panel on the system is optimized by another controller where the quadratic maximization MPPT algorithm is used to ensure the panel's output power is always maximized. Experiments are carried out at atmospheric insolation with partial shading conditions using 4 amorphous silicon thin film solar panels of 2 different grades fabricated by Chi-Mei Energy. It is found that distributed MPPT requires only 100ms to find the maximum power point of the system. Compared with the traditional centralized PV (CPV) system, the distributed PV (DPV) system harvests more than 4% of solar energy in atmospheric weather condition, and 22% in average under 19% partial shading of one solar panel in the system. Test results for a 1.84 kW rated system composed by 8 poly-Si PV panels using another DC/DC converter design also confirm that the proposed system can be easily implemented into a larger PV power system. Additionally, the use of NI sbRIO-9642 FPGA-based controller is capable of controlling over 16 sets of PV modules, and a number of controllers can cooperate via the network if needed.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1281-1292
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• 2014

Photovoltaic (PV) solar systems with series-connected module integrated converters (MICs) are receiving increased attention because of their ability to create high output voltage while performing local maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control for individual solar panels, which is a solution for partial shading effects in PV systems at panel level. To eliminate the partial shading effects in PV system more effectively, sub-MICs are utilized at the cell level or grouped cell level within a PV solar panel. This study presents the results of a series-output-connection MPPT (SOC-MPPT) controller for sub-MIC architecture using a single sensor at the output and a single digital MPPT controller (sub-MIC SOC-MPPT controller and architecture). The sub-MIC SOC-MPPT controller and architecture are investigated based on boost type sub-MICs. Experimental results under steady-state and transient conditions are presented to verify the performance of the controller and the effectiveness of the architecture.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.8-13
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• 2009

In this paper, two configurations of PV array are analyzed and tested under shading condition, where two configurations are series-parallel and total-crass-tied configuration. Each photovoltaic module is emulated by two 5 inch po1y-crystalline cells in series and an array is constructed by connecting 24 of the modules to compare a generated maximum power of the two configurations. Pspice and Sun simulator. PASAN IIIb, are used for simulation and experiment to test the array under various partial shading conditions. Test results show the total-cross-tied configuration generates 7.63% higher maximum power than the series-parallel configuration, and it is well matched to the analysis and simulations of the two configurations.