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Abstract—Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is an integral Thus, it is imperative to utilize MPPT techniques that reliably
part of a system of energy conversion using photovoltaic (PV) track the unique global power maximum present in shaded
arrays. The power-voltage characteristic of PV arrays operating arrays.
under partial shading conditions exhibits multiple local maximum
power points (LMPPs). In this paper, a new method has been Some researchers have proposed global maximum power
presented to track the global maximum power point (GMPP) of point tracking (GMPPT) algorithms to address the partial shad-
PV. Compared with the past proposed global MPPT techniques, the ing condition. In [15], it is observed that the peaks follow a
method proposed in this paper has the advantages of determining specific trend in which the power at a peak point continues to
whether partial shading is present, calculating the number of peaks increase until it reaches the GMPP, and afterward, it continu-
on P–V curves, and predicting the locations of GMPP and LMPP.
The new method can quickly find GMPP, and avoid much energy ously decreases. In [16], the proposed algorithm incorporates an
loss due to blind scan. The experimental results verify that the online current measurement and periodic interruptions to address
proposed method guarantees convergence to the global MPP under certain challenges associated with rapidly changing insolation
partial shading conditions. and partial shading. A modified rule for updating the duty-cycle
Index Terms—Maximum power point tracking (MPPT), multiple is presented, which is based on the first and second derivatives of
maxima, partial shading, photovoltaic (PV). the power as a function of the duty-cycle. In [17], a smart P–I
curve scanning is devised to detect the presence of the global
maxima. In [18], a dc–dc converter controlled by a dc signal of
I. INTRODUCTION adjustable amplitude is used to track the global MPP. Then the
perturb and observe (P&O) MPPT algorithm is applied in order
A PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) cell is an electrical device that
converts the energy of light directly into electricity
through PV effect. PV cells have a complex relationship between
to continuously track the short-term variations of the previously
detected global MPP. In [19], it presents a novel model-based
solar irradiation, temperature, and total resistance, and exhibit a two-loop control scheme for a particular module-integrated PV
nonlinear output efficiency characteristic known as the P–V and converter system, where bidirectional Cuk dc–dc converters
curve. Therefore, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) tech- are used as the bypass converters and a terminal Cuk boost
niques should be developed in PV systems in order to maximize functioning as a whole system power conditioner. The system
the output power of PV systems. Nowadays, there have been can increase power generation compared to the conventional
many MPPT methods reported in the literature, such as hill bypass diode structure. In [20], it uses a periodic scan sequence of
climbing [1], perturb and observe [2], incremental conductance the P–V curve to detect local MPPs due to the long time required
(INC) [3], and ripple correction [4]. for the completion of this tracking process, and the PV energy
However, when there are multiple local power maxima [5], production is reduced. The global MPPT methods that are
[6], from partially shading or from installation on a curved presented in [21] and [22] are based on the measurements of
surface [7], [8], conventional MPPT techniques do not perform the PV array open-circuit voltage and solar irradiation or short-
well. Multiple maxima may occur due to bypass diodes [9], [10], circuit current, respectively.
which are used to avoid hot spots from forming when some cells The above papers can be categorized into two groups. 1) The
in a module or some modules in a string receive less irradiance global (or partial) scan of obtained PV output curves [15]–[20].
than others [11]–[14]. Without the remediation of power elec- Then, a complex algorithm is used to calculate the GMPP of the
tronics, the lost energy due to partial shading can be significant. curves. One disadvantage of this method is the inability to
determine whether the PV cell is operating under the shading
Manuscript received August 01, 2013; revised December 19, 2013 and February conditions. Because the GMPP is blindly tracked, and the
17, 2014; accepted March 30, 2014. This work was supported in part by “the conversion system works at low-power points most of the time
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” (ZYGX2012YB029), in in the tracking process, energy waste is significant. 2) The other
part by the “Project on the Integration of Industry, Education and Research of
Guangdong Province” (Grant 2011B090400383), and in part by “the National group uses specialized sensors (e.g., for the measurement of solar
Natural Science Foundation of China’ (Grant 61102141). (Corresponding author: irradiation) to calculate the working status of the PV cells and
Y. Cheng.) simulate the output characteristic curves [21], [22]. This method
The authors are with the School of Automation Engineering, University of
Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China (e-mail:
can be an effective solution to mitigate the effect of partial
kaichen.uestc@gmail.com; shulin@uestc.edu.cn; yhcheng@uestc.edu.cn; shading. The simulation results, however, obtained by measuring
bailb991@163.com). environmental parameters and the actual case will be drastically
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. different, because the actual characteristic of the solar panels
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSTE.2014.2315653 depends on many factors (e.g., light intensity, temperature,
1949-3029 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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Fig. 4. Array output power with unshaded module output voltage and shaded
module output voltage.
the same MPP technique is applied to track this peak (blocks 14 tracked, the new information ( ,
and 15). By comparing the powers of this peak (new MPP) and ) is stored. The output power of the new MPP is greater
the previous one (last MPP), the true GMPP is obtained (blocks than the old one, so point A is the GMPP.
16 and 17). Finally, the reference voltage is set to the voltage of
C. More Levels of Insolation
the true GMPP, and the control is passed onto the “Main
Program,” which maintains the operation at this GMPP until In general, a PV array is irradiated by only two levels of
the timer interrupt occurs again. insolation under the partial shading condition. However, some
To understand the algorithm with an example, assume that a extreme situation may also occur. For example, Fig. 6 shows the
PV array in the case of Fig. 1(c). The local peak [point B, as characteristics of a PV array in which four PV modules are
shown in Fig. 2(c)] is tracked by the P&O method. Whether MPP connected in series and irradiated by four levels of insolation
is reached or not is checked by determining the sign of the power conditions. Obviously, the above algorithm will no longer apply
in two subsequent perturbations. When the local peak (point B) is to this situation, but the observations are still valid. Therefore,
tracked and stored the current information ( , after making some modifications in the GMPP subroutine, the
), the algorithm measures the module voltage previous algorithms can be successfully used for extreme situa-
( , ). Obviously, the judg- tions. The “Main Program” will not have any change and can
ment ( > ) is established, and the “GMPP track subroutine” continue to function well. The new flowchart of “GMPP track
is called. In the GMPP track program, no module voltage is subroutine” is shown in Fig. 7.
smaller than zero, so the module voltages are divided into two In order to determine the number of different insolation levels
groups ( , , and , ), and is equal to 2. Then the new irradiated on the PV array, the new “GMPP track subroutine”
reference voltage is set to 37.1 V, and the P&O method is applied starts with tracking the rightmost peak on the P–V curves. If any
to track another peak (point A). When the peak (point A) is PV module voltage is not less than zero, the last MPP is the
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TABLE I
DATA SHEET OF PV MODULE
B. Experimental Results
Initially, the P–V characteristic, I–V characteristic, and every
PV module voltage of the PV array were experimentally mea-
sured using a scan process. Then, the proposed global MPPT
method was applied. The experimentally measured operating
points of the PV array during the execution of the proposed
global MPPT process (i.e., points P1–P13) are also indicated in
Fig. 11. The time interval between two adjacent operating points
is 0.1 s, and the voltage disturbance in the P&O method is set to
2 V.
Fig. 8. Performance of the three algorithms under varying shading conditions. There are two observed peaks in the P–V curve, as shown in
(a) The proposed algorithm. (b) P–V curve periodic scanning. (c) Rapid global Fig. 12. It proves that the PV array is exposed to two levels of
scanning algorithm.
insolation. As seen in Fig. 12, the proposed algorithm can
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS quickly locate the GMPP. Fig. 13 shows the Please array output
voltage with every module output voltage.
A. Experimental Setup
The obtained maximum power, corresponding to the GMPP,
To test the performance of the proposed MPPT technique, a is 181.742 W, while the power corresponding to local peak is
series of experimental tests was performed. Fig. 9 shows a boost 120.192 W. The current and voltage at the GMPP are 2.822 A and
converter system adopted for the verified experiment. The PV 64.402 V, respectively. The values recorded for and are
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VI. CONCLUSION
The detection of global MPP is indispensable in maximizing
the PV system energy production in the case of PV array partial
shading. In this paper, a method was presented to track the global
MPP of a PV array. The method has the following advantages.
1) With comparison of the voltages of every PV module, the
method can detect the presence of partial shading and avoid
blind scanning.
2) By separating the voltages of all PV modules into different
Fig. 10. PV arrays used in the experimental setup.
groups, the method can calculate the number of peaks on
P–V curves and quickly locate the GMPP and LMPPs.
3) By calculating the number of PV modules in every group,
the method can predict the locations of GMPP or LMPPs.
This cuts down the tracking time.
The simulation and experimental results verify that the pro-
posed method determine the presence of partial shading and
guarantees convergence to the global MPP under partial shading
conditions.
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[13] E. Karatepe, M. Boztepe, and M. Çolak, “Development of a suitable model Shulin Tian received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in
for characterizing photovoltaic arrays with shaded solar cells,” Solar automation engineering science from the University
Energy, vol. 81, pp. 977–992, Jan. 2007. of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
[14] A. Bidram, A. Davoudi, and R. S. Balog, “Control and circuit techniques to Chengdu, China, in 1989 and 1991, respectively.
mitigate partial shading effects in photovoltaic arrays,” IEEE J. Photo- Currently, he is a Professor and the Dean of the
voltaics, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 532–546, Oct. 2012. School of Automation Engineering, University of
[15] H. Patel and V. Agarwal, “Maximum power point tracking scheme for PV Electronic Science and Technology of China. Majored
systems operating under partially shaded conditions,” IEEE Trans. Ind. in measuring and testing technology and instruments,
Electron., vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 1689–1698, Apr. 2008. he has conducted a number of projects in high speed,
[16] A. Zbeeb, V. Devabhaktuni, and A. Sebak, “Improved photovoltaic MPPT high-precision data acquisition and processing, high-
algorithm adapted for unstable atmospheric conditions and partial shading,” speed wave form generation, network/communication
in Proc. Int. Conf. Clean Elect. Power, Jun. 2009, pp. 320–323. testing, testing bus technology, and testing system integration.
[17] S. Kazmi, H. Goto, O. Ichinokura, and H.-J. Guo, “An improved and very Dr. Tian is a Member of the National Electronic Measuring Instrument
efficient MPPT controller for PV systems subjected to rapidly varying Standardization Technology Committee, and Chief Committeeman of the
atmospheric conditions and partial shading,” in Proc. Australas. Univ. Sichuan Automation Control Committee of Instrument, Institute of Sichuan
Power Eng. Conf., Sep. 2009, pp. 1–6. Province, China.
[18] E. Koutroulis and F. Blaabjerg, “A new technique for tracking the global
maximum power point of PV arrays operating under partial-shading con-
ditions,” IEEE J. Photovoltaics, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 184–190, Apr. 2012. Yuhua Cheng (M’10–SM’13) received the Doctor
[19] B. V. P. Chong and L. Zhang, “Controller design for integrated PV converter degree in measurement techniques and automation
modules under partial shading conditions,” Solar Energy, vol. 92, devices from the Sichuan University, Chengdu,
pp. 123–138, 2013. China, in 2007.
[20] M. Trova, “Top 5 performers in PHOTON inverter tests,” in Proc. Photon’s He is an Associate Professor of Automation En-
1st PV Inverter Conf., Stuttgart, Germany, Apr. 2010. gineering with the University of Electronic Science
[21] M. Lei, S. Yaojie, L. Yandan, B. Zhifeng, T. Liqin, and S. Jieqiong, “A high and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. His re-
performance MPPT control method,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Mater. Renew. search interests include nondestructive evaluation
Energy Environ., 2011, vol. 1, pp. 195–199. (NDE), structural health monitoring (SHM), and the
[22] S. Kazmi, H. Goto, O. Ichinokura, and H.-J. Guo, “An improved and very application of photonics in sensing and communica-
efficient MPPT controller for PV systems subjected to rapidly varying tions systems.
atmospheric conditions and partial shading,” in Proc. Australas. Univ.
Power Eng. Conf., 2009, pp. 1–6.
Libing Bai received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from
the University of Electronic Science and Technology
Kai Chen received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the of China, Chengdu, China, in 2008 and 2013.
University of Electronic Science and Technology of Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Auto-
China, Chengdu, China, in 2008 and 2011. Currently, mation Engineering with the University of Electronic
he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the School of Science and Technology of China. His research inter-
Automation Engineering, University of Electronic ests include measurement and control technology
Science and Technology of China. and instrument, sensor signal processing, structural
His research interests include testing and measure- health monitoring, and nondestructive testing and
ment instrument design, nondestructive evaluation evaluation.
(NDE), and renewable energy systems.