Enhanced performance of partially shaded photovoltaic arrays using diagonally dispersed total cross tied configuration

Abstract

Partial shading on photovoltaic (PV) systems causes a reduction in generated power and multiple peaks on their electrical characteristics. These adverse effects depend on the types of interconnection between modules and the intensity of insolation. This paper proposes a new configuration of PV modules, known as Diagonally dispersed Total Cross Tied (D-TCT), to achieve an enhanced performance under partial shading conditions. The unequal distribution of the shaded modules in various rows of TCT configuration produces greater power loss and more number of peaks in the electrical characteristics. The basic idea of this method is to disperse shaded modules to various rows such that an approximate-balanced distribution of shaded modules is possible for almost all practical shading patterns resulting in the enhanced performance. The performance of D-TCT is analyzed and compared with existing TCT and odd-even configurations and is found that the proposed method gives better performance over the existing methods. An experimental study is also carried out using 16 number of 20 W solar panels connected in 4×4 arrays and it is observed that the proposed method gives an enhanced power of 9.46%,10.70%,11.33%, and 18.06% as compared to TCT configuration for various shading patterns.