Enhanced performance of partially shaded photovoltaic arrays using diagonally dispersed total cross tied configuration

ABSTRACT

Partial shading on photovoltaic (PV) systems causes a reduction in generated power and multiple peaks on their electrical characteristics. These adverse effects depend on the types of interconnection between modules and the intensity of insolation. This paper proposes a new configuration of PV modules, known as Diagonally dispersed Total Cross Tied (D-TCT), to achieve an enhanced performance under partial shading conditions. The unequal distribution of the shaded modules in various rows of TCT configuration produces greater power loss and more number of peaks in the electrical characteristics. The basic idea of this method is to disperse shaded modules to various rows such that an approximate-balanced distribution of shaded modules is possible for almost all practical shading patterns resulting in the enhanced performance. The performance of D-TCT is analyzed and compared with existing TCT and odd-even configurations and is found that the proposed method gives better performance over the existing methods. An experimental study is also carried out using 16 number of 20 W solar panels connected in 4$\times$4 arrays and it is observed that the proposed method gives an enhanced power of $9.46\mathrm{\%},10.70\mathrm{\%},11.33\mathrm{\%},$ and $18.06\mathrm{\%}$ as compared to TCT configuration for various shading patterns.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar energy
• maximum power point
• partial shading
• PV array configuration

Nomenclature

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vishnu P. Madhanmohan

Vishnu P. Madhanmohan received the B.Tech degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Calicut University, Kerala, India in 2009 and M.Tech degrees in Power-electronics from Visvesvaraya Technological University Belgavi, Karnataka, India in 2012. He is currently a research scholar at department of Electrical Engineering, Government engineering college Thrissur, Affiliated to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, India. He is researching on the cause and effect of partial shading in the field of solar photovoltaics and his research interests focus much into improvising the implementation of renewable energy sources and its effective usage.

M. Nandakumar

M. Nandakumar received the B.Tech degree in electrical engineering from Calicut University, Kerala, India in 1985 and the M.Tech degree in industrial electronics engineering from National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka, India in 1987. He received his Ph.D degree in power electronics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 2006. He has got 30 years of teaching experience at various government engineering colleges in Kerala. Presently, he is working as professor and head of department of electrical & electronics engineering department, SCMS school of engineering & technology, Eranakulam, Kerala. His research interests include power electronics and drives, power quality, FACTs and solar photovoltaics.

Abdul Saleem

Abdul Saleem received B.Tech degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and M.Tech degree in Control system from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Calicut, India in 1994 and 2009 respectively. He received PhD degree from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India in 2017. Currently he is Associate Professor with Department of Electrical Engineering, Government Engineering College, Thrissur, India affiliated APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, India. His research mainly focuses on photovoltaics, solar energy, robotics, guidance and control.