Assam Don Bosco University, India

Mathematical model to estimate the maximum power output of a PV array during partial shading condition

The condition at which a part of a photovoltaic (PV) module is shaded is called partial shading condition (PSC). Owing to the inclusion of a bypass diode, the occurrence of local and global maximum peak creates more difficulty in the calculation of maximum power output from a PV array. A mathematical model is established to estimate the percentage of degradation of PV arrays at different PSCs.

The proposed algorithm will estimate the maximum power point of a PV array during PSC without using any measuring instrument except for the measurement of irradiance and temperature. A better correlation is obtained when the output of the proposed model is compared with MATLAB simulated output.

The output of the proposed model compared with the experimental output performed on an array comprising of 3 W PV modules, shows satisfactory results. The same algorithm is planned for a 1 KW PV power plant.

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