Photovoltaic array reconfiguration under partial shading conditions for maximum power extraction via knight's tour technique

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel reconfiguration technique, called Knight's tour to extract maximum power from photovoltaic (PV) arrays in partial shading conditions. The Knight's tour reconfigures the PV arrays based on the Knight's movements on the chessboard. The proposed procedure achieves the maximum power values by spreading partial shadows in all rows. Knight's tour can be applied to a variety of PV arrays in different dimensions and sizes. Accordingly, the Knight's tour procedure is applied to four cases in square and rectangular shapes with different dimensions and various shading conditions in each case. To make a direct comparison and present the effectiveness of the suggested procedure, the total-cross-tied connection model and conventional methods such as SuDoKu, optimal SuDoKu, improved SuDoKu, and Skyscraper puzzle are also implemented to the introduced cases. The results of the maximum power point tracking in each case are evaluated by indicators such as global maximum power point (GMPP), fill factor, mismatch loss, and efficiency. Finally, evaluations emphasize the ability and effectiveness of the Knight's tour solution compared to other methods by achieving the GMPP values such as 74.7ImVm, 66.6ImVm, 46.8ImVm, and 109.8ImVm for cases 1 to 4, respectively. The Knight's tour method can be utilized as an efficient tool for the PV arrays in real-world systems that suffer from partial shading.