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Fuzzy Based Reconfiguration Method Using Intelligent Partial Shadow Detection in PV Arrays
Fuzzy Based Reconfiguration Method Using Intelligent Partial Shadow Detection in PV Arrays
2 (2016) 202-212
Mehmet Karakose1†, Mehmet Baygin1, Kagan Murat1, Nursena Baygin2, Erhan Akin1
1
Computer Engineering Department, Firat University
Elazig, 23119, Turkey
Abstract
Photovoltaic (PV) systems are the most commonly used methods. PV systems have the most potential and
efficiency between the species of renewable energy. However, this method can be subjected to a loss of energy
gain when shading occurs on the PV panels. To overcome this negative situation, a reconfiguration process in the
PV systems has been developed. Through this method, the power losses caused by the shading of the panel on the
system are attempting to be minimized . Without any change in the physical location of the pre-shading panels, the
panels are co nfigured with electrical connectors. In this study, a new efficient and intelligent reconfiguration
method is proposed. The short-circuit current values of the PV panels are detected using current sensors. Short-
circuit current values vary in proportion to the shadings that occur on the panels. A fuzzy calculation is carried out
taking the current values into account as the system input parameters. The optimal connection structure is detected
by using the fuzzy output values. The result is then applied to the system by switching the matrix circuit. The
proposed method has been tested in different shadowing conditions and has been seen as a gain ratio. Experiments
performed in real-time availability have confirmed the suitability of the method for different sized systems.
Keywords: PV Arrays, Shadow Detection, Reconfiguration, Partial Shading Diagnosis, Fuzzy Logic, Switching
Matrix.
*
This study has been supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK 1001 Programme) under Research
Project No: 112E214
†
Corresponding author: Computer Engineering Department, Firat University, 23119, Central Elazig, Turkey, Tel: +90-424-2370000, Email address:
mkarakose@firat.edu.tr.
arrays. Experimental operations were applied for a small The reconfiguration approach is aimed at
sized PV system. When we consider this approach for determining the best connection structure that
more PV arrays, it will take more running time. provides the maximum power for the system by the
Reconfiguration is a method that is developed to processing values from the adaptive and fixed
increase the output power of a PV system that decreased panels. The obtained connection information is
in the case of partial shading. This method mainly applied to the system by a switching matrix circuit.
consists of basic blocks: fixed panel, adaptive panel and The PV system will become the dynamic mode of
a switching matrix circuit. The fixed panel has more PV the operation with this method. A graphic that shows
cells and is the main part of the system. It is structured the power efficiency obtained with the
with one of the connection types of the S&P (Series- reconfiguration method is illustrated in Fig. 4.
Parallel), TCT (Total-Cross Tied) and BL (Bridge-
Linked), as illustrated in Fig. 2. It does not undergo any
changes during the process and is always fixed. The first
part, the fixed PV panel part, consists of ݉ ݊ݔPV panels
(m sub-modules, consisting of n cells). The arrays in
the fixed panels are F1, F2,…, Fm. The second main part,
the adaptive panel, consists of an m PV panel, A1,
A2,…, Am. There is also a switching matrix circuit that
provides the connection between the adaptive panel and
the fixed panel. As illustrated in Fig. 3, each switch in (a) (b)
this circuit is designed, as any PV array in an adaptive Fig. 4. MPP variation for a reconfiguration in the same PV
panel will be connected to an array in the fixed panel. array
F1 2. Proposed Approach
S(1,1) S(1,2) S(1,m)
The reconfiguration is an important method for
F2 providing the maximum performance on a PV system.
S(2,1) In performing the method, a major step is determining
the optimal connection structure. This step should be as
accurate and as quick as possible, especially in large
Fm sized systems. In this study, a very efficient algorithm
S(m,1) that can be applied to real time systems is proposed. The
algorithm has a fuzzy partitioning based artificial
approach. The short circuit currents obtained from the
A1 A2 Am
adaptive and fixed panels (Isc) are transmitted to a fuzzy
Fig. 3. Switching matrix circuit control unit. Here, the fuzzy partitioning operation is
done. The optimal connection structure is then input parameters. Both numbers of sub-modules in the
determined and the result is applied to the arrays by the adaptive panel and fixed panel (n) are obtained as short-
switching matrix circuit. A block diagram illustrating circuit current values. The obtained values are sent to
proposed approach is given in Fig. 5. the next unit for calculating the fuzzy measurements.
The amount of shading on a PV panel consists of The next step requires determining the range that the
radiation values in the range of 0-1000 W/m2. The membership values frequently exist in. For this
value produced in response to this radiation is the procedure, a control range and a threshold value are
amount of short-circuit current and is between 0-3.8A. calculated by using Eq. 4 and 5. The lower limit is
However, because each sub-module in the fixed panel cntrlmin, while the upper limit is cntrlmax. The threshold
contained more than one PV panel, the obtained short value is threshold_value, and the count of expected
circuit current values will be out of the expected value membership value is the number_of_membership
range. Therefore, the normalization of the values (NoM); and ݇ is a constant and is determined
obtained from the fixed panel must be provided. The experimentally.
equation for the normalization process is given in Eq.
(1). Some irradiance and short circuit current values ܫ௦ ܫ௦
obtained from the PV arrays are presented in Table 1. ݈ܿ݊ݎݐ = [ܫ௦ െ ,ܫ + ] (4)
ܰ ݉௦ ܰ݉
m § n ·
I SCavg ¦ ¨ ¦ Ii, j ¸ n (1) ܫ௦ೌೣ ܫ௦
i 1© j 1 ¹ ݈ܿ݊ݎݐ௫ = [ܫ௦ೌೣ െ ,ܫ + ೌೣ ] (5)
ܰ ݉௦ೌೣ ܰ݉
Goto Step 4 A3 VL
F3 H
Else A4 H
F4 VL
Iscmin = the next minimum value A5 M F5 L
Goto Step 2
A6 M F6 M
end_value = Iscmax A8 VH F8 VH
Else A9 VH F9 VH
Iscmax = the previous maximum value
Goto Step 2
Step 5. Get start_value and end_value Fig. 8. One example of adaptive and fixed arrays
2.277A
0.6M-0.4L
The start_value and end_value is the start point and end VL L M H VH
point, respectively, of the fuzzy measurements. This 1
range is labeled with fuzzy labels by dividing the count 0 I SC
1.517 1.992 2.467 2.942 3.415 3.8
of the membership values. When Table 1 is considered
and constant, k, is 0.3, the membership values are Fig. 9. Membership of a short circuit current value
obtained as shown in Fig. 7. Membership labels are
very low (VL), low (L), medium (M), high (H) and very C. Control and Decision: The determined short circuit
high (VH). current values of the adaptive and fixed panels are
sorted from very low (VL) to very high (VH). A
crossing operation is applied to the sorting values as the
0 3.8 I SC minimum value of the fixed panel is mapped to the
maximum value of the adaptive panel. For example, an
0 1000
Irradiation
adaptive array panel with a VL value can be matched
with a panel with the VH values in the fixed array. A
VL L M H VH
1 block diagram showing this condition is shown in
Figure 10. In this way, the radiation values of the sub-
0
1.517 1.992 2.467 2.942 3.415 3.8
I SC modules in the system is averaged and the optimal result
are determined. A connection structure that is
Fig. 7. Relationship between fuzzy measurements and ISC
calculated with that approach is shown in Fig. 10.
In Fig. 8, the membership values for each adaptive array Adaptive Fixed Final
Outputs Outputs Connection
are shown. The shades on this figure are illustrated as
A1 VL F1 VL A5 F1
radiation values. When calculating the membership
value of the fuzzy labels, we should determine the A2 VL F2 L A3 F2
placement of the current value on the membership A3 L F3 M A4 F3
functions (e.g., 0.8L, 0.2M). The bigger value is the
point value (0.8L); it will be the membership value to A4 M F4 H A2 F4
take for the current value. If both point values are the A5 H F5 VH A1 F5
same, we would take the larger membership values. In
Fig. 9, a membership value of 1.138A is illustrated. Fig. 10. An example of the control and decision
3. Simulation and Experimental Results structure before the reconfiguration and the final
In this study, simulations are actualized to overcome the structure are illustrated in Table 4. The relationship
disadvantages of the partial shading conditions on the between the irradiance values on the PV panels are
PV arrays by testing the different sized arrays and given in Table 5. When considering this relationship,
different partial shading conditions. The characteristic the total irradiance value of the connected arrays are
attributes of the PV panels used in the simulations are closer, as compared to before the reconfiguration. The
given in Table 2. The input parameters used for the radiance values changed from [933W/m2 - 1917W/m2]
proposed algorithm are taken from the nine sub- before the reconfiguration to [1117 W/m2 - 1533 W/m2]
modules. These radiation and current values are given in after the reconfiguration.
Table 1. The membership values of the state adaptive
and fixed panels are illustrated in Table 3. Table 4. The connection structure before and after
reconfiguration
Table 2. Characteristics of PV Panel Type of
Before Reconfiguration
Array
Description Value
Adaptive A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9
Size of fixed arrays 9x3
Size of adaptive arrays 9x1 Fixed F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9
Minimum irradiance value of panels 0 W/m2 Type of
Maximum irradiance value of panels 1000 W/m2 Array
After Reconfiguration
Minimum ISC value of panels 0A
Adaptive A6 A7 A5 A9 A8 A4 A3 A2 A1
Maximum ISC value of panels 3.8 A
Temperature 25 oC Fixed F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9
Maximum power (PMAX) of panels 65 W
Table 3. Membership Values The two connection structures shown in Table 5 are
Adaptive Arrays Fixed Arrays actualized in the MATLAB environment. The obtained
Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy P-V and I-V graphics are given in Fig. 11 (a-b). As
No No
Output Groups Output Groups noticed in both of these figures, the proposed approach
0.47 VH
A1 1.0 VL VL F1 H provides a larger power point than the conventional
0.53 H
0.87 M methods. However, the proposed approach does not
A2 1.0 VL VL F2 M
0.13 L contain any calculations to extend the process time.
0.66 H Hence, the system does not have the complexity and
A3 1.0 VL VL F3 H
0.34 M
0.8 H can actualize all operations in a minimum amount of
A4 H F4 1.0 VL VL time. The efficiency of the PV arrays will be at the
0.2 VH
0.6 M 0.8 L maximum point. An experiment mechanism in 3x4 size
A5 M F5 L
0.4 H 0.2 VL is prepared for real-time testing of the proposed
0.6 M 0.6 M
A6 M F6 M approach. A video is recorded by using this
0.4 L 0.4 L
0.3 VH experimental setup and a camera. Then, the resulting
A7 1.0 VH VH F7 H
0.7 H full or partial shadings on the panels were determined
0.6 VH 0.73 VH
A8 VH F8 VH by image processing algorithms implemented on the
0.4 H 0.27 H
0.86 VH video image. An example scenario illustrating algorithm
A9 1.0 VH VH F9 VH
0.14 H steps is presented in Fig. 12. In addition, the panel
radiation values were obtained thanks to this algorithm
The columns titled fuzzy output in Table 3 are the points and given to the fuzzy partitioning algorithm as input
among the membership values measured as the fuzzy parameter. Finally, the results obtained from the
values. The column titled fuzzy group is determined by proposed approach has been sent to the switching
the membership value. The fuzzy group values are matrix. Thus it was determined the optimal panel layout.
determined as discussed previously. This value is then Connection layouts of before and after reconfiguration
sorted and applied to the cross process. The connection are given in Fig. 13-(a) and (b), respectively.
900
800
Point
500
Maximum Power
Point
400
300
200
(a)
I-V characteristics of an adaptive and fixed array
25
20 Maximum power
point
Maximum power
point
15
Current (I)
Before Reconfiguration
After Reconfiguration
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Voltage (V)
(b)
(d) Shadow image with threshold
Fig. 11. P-V and I-V graphics for reconfiguration process Fig. 12. Shadow detection for reconfiguration
(b) Configuration of PV array after reconfiguration (b) I-V graphics for simulation results
Fig. 14. P-V and I-V graphics
Fig. 13. PV array configuration before and after the
reconfiguration process
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