Square dynamic reconfiguration for the partial shaded photovoltaic system - simulation and experimental analysis

The solar photovoltaic system often encounters partial shading issues which invariably affect the output power generation from the PV array. Partial shading conditions cannot be discarded but able to be diminished using reconfiguration techniques. A new square dynamic reconfiguration algorithm is critically analyzed in this paper for the partial shaded Photovoltaic System. However, several other dynamic reconfiguration algorithms exist, the proposed square dynamic reconfiguration technique extracts maximum power from the PV array using a feasible switching circuit. In this method, an 8 x 8 PV array splits into four quadrants of each 4 x 4 matrix is investigated and a switching matrix is introduced between the quadrants in this proposed square dynamic reconfiguration algorithm. Each quadrant possesses an equal number of rows and columns. The row current in terms of the short circuit current of each row is utilized to categorize the different cases. The simulation work of this proposed SDR method is conducted in MATLAB Simulink software for 8 x 8 matrices and the experimentation is accomplished using a test setup of a 4 x 4 PV array. Randomly seven shading types are considered to verify the effectiveness of our work. In the switching matrix, only 16 switches are taken to extract a maximum power of 136 W out from the 160 W experimentation 4 x 4 PV array test set up under partial shading. The herein conducted research work provides an innovative and simpler reconfiguration algorithm because of its lesser number of switches in the switching circuit with a convenient operation to generate power during partial shading conditions.