Real-time implementation of novel cross-tied PV array configuration to extract maximum power under shading conditions

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have certain challenges that require mitigation – the chief of which is operation under partially shaded conditions (PSCs). This research presents a comprehensive performance analysis of different PV array configurations such as Series Parallel (SP), Bridge Linked (BL), Honeycomb (HC), Total Cross Tied (TCT) and a novel configuration called Alternate – Cross Tied (A-CT) under various commonly encountered PSCs. The proposed configuration offers a balance between all desirable performance parameters such as high global peak power (GPP) and fill factor (FF) under PSCs while having low mismatching losses (MMPL), voltage variation and number of cross links. Simulation results performed using Matlab/Simulink have been presented. A hardware model of the proposed configuration and the benchmark TCT configuration is tested using the Chroma 62050H-600S solar PV emulator with Perturb & Observe (P&O), Cuckoo Search (CS) and Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms implemented using the Texas Instruments TMS 320F28379D microcontroller. It is observed that the proposed A-CT configuration has an average GPP, which is just 0.76% less than the best performing TCT configuration while providing a 46% reduction in wiring costs compared to the latter for an 8 × 8 sized array.