A Novel Magic Square Based Physical Reconfiguration for Power Enhancement in Larger Size Photovoltaic Array

Partial shading is the prevailing problem in Photovoltaic arrays. It results in severe consequences like multiple peaks in electrical characteristics, hot spots on Photovoltaic panels, disruptions in tracking maximum power and reduced output power. During most of the shading conditions, the shade concentrates in a particular area of the Photovoltaic (PV) array. This shading reduces PV array efficiency. Several physical reconfiguration schemes based on puzzle patterns are proposed to minimize this problem. The majority of these methods deduced to fixed PV array size for which the algorithm has proposed. Further, few of them are applicable only to lower size PV array. This paper presents a novel magic square puzzle for scattering the shade in the PV array to overcome the above constraints. In this method, the module physical position remains the same. However, the electrical wiring alters according to the puzzle pattern to change the row current in the Total-Cross-Tied topology PV array. The efficiency of the proposed system is examined under different shading conditions using characteristic curves. The relative analysis was carried between the conventional Total-Cross-Tied topology and the proposed Novel Magic Square-based Total-Cross-Tied topology. The MATLAB/SIMULATION results demonstrate that placing the modules according to the proposed reconfiguration method minimizes the peaks and enhances the output power (11.53%), with the global peak always on the right side of the PV curve under partial shading conditions.

Automated summary

This paper presents a novel magic square puzzle method to solve the partial shading problem in photovoltaic arrays. By changing the electrical wiring to alter the row current, the proposed method minimizes peaks and increases output power under different shading conditions.