Parameter Estimation of the Bishop Photovoltaic Model Using a Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Photovoltaic panels can be affected by partial shading, which causes some shaded cells to consume the energy generated by other cells of the panel. That is, shaded cells stop operating in the first quadrant and start operating in the second quadrant, with negative voltage at their terminals, causing power losses and other negative effects in the cells. The Bishop model is an accurate representation of the cells behavior at the second quadrant, but estimating its parameters is not a trivial task. Therefore, this paper presents a procedure to estimate the parameters of the Bishop model by using the Chu–Beasley optimization technique. The effectiveness of this procedure was evaluated using different accuracy measures such as RMSE and MAPE, obtaining values lower than 0.5%. In addition, the results of this study demonstrate that it is essential to estimate all the parameters of the Bishop model, illustrate the variation in the parameters according to the cell technology and show the strong influence of the shunt resistance into the behavior at the second quadrant.