Development of an Improved GMPPT Based on Scanning Method for PV System Operating under a Dynamic Partial Shading Conditions

Abstract

Under partial shading conditions (PSCs), the P-V characteristic of a photovoltaic (PV) array becomes more complicated due to the presence of more than one power peak in contrast to normal conditions (without shading) where there is only one peak named Maximum Power Point (MPP). In this paper, an improved scanning method to track the Global Maximum Power Point (GMPP) with good tracking speed is proposed. The objective of this method is to reduce the response time by limiting the search interval of scan points in the scaning method, which makes the tracking of GMPP fast and efficient under PSCs. The effectiveness of the improved scanning method is verified using a PV simulator. The results demonstrated that the proposed method effectively tracks the GMPP under different PSCs and has excellent performance in terms of response time (1.4 s) and efficiency (99.50%), which improves the efficiency and response time of the PV system by 0.55 s. and 0.4%, respectively, when compared to the scanning method.