A Comprehensive Study on Re-arrangement of Modules Based TCT Configurations of Partial Shaded PV Array with Shade Dispersion Method

V.B Raju,Ch Chengaiah

doi:10.17737/tre.2020.6.1.00111

Abstract

The conventional Total-Cross-Tied (TCT) Solar photovoltaic (SPV) array configuration has the highest power output as compared to other configurations or topologies in most cases of partial shading. But the performance of TCT configuration is affected under shading conditions, resulting in multiple peaks occurring in the output PV characteristics. To improve the performance of TCT array configuration under different shading scenarios, it is only necessary to reposition or rearrange the PV modules in the TCT Solar PV array based on the arrangement of puzzle numbers, without altering the electrical contacts of the TCT array configuration. The main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of rearrangement of modules in SPV array based new TCT array configurations with shade dispersion technique and compare the global maximum peak power (GMPP) of SPV array, mismatch losses, Fill-Factor, efficiency and number of required electrical connections or ties between array modules with proposed optimal arrangement of modules under shading (non-uniform irradiance) conditions. For this study, one uniform irradiance case and total 14 partial shading patterns were considered. MATLAB/Simulink software was used for modeling and simulation of 6A—6 size different rearrangement based TCT array and proposed optimal SPV array configurations. Citation: Â BALARAJU, V., and Chengaiah, C. (2020). A Comprehensive Study on Re-arrangement of Modules Based TCT Configurations of Partial Shaded PV Array with Shade Dispersion Method. Trends in Renewable Energy, 6, 37-60. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2020.6.1.00111

Highlights

The freely available irradiance in the atmosphere is directly converted into electricity through the photovoltaic (PV) effect with the help of solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells in a PV module
This paper proposes an optimal interconnection for a 6×6 size TCT array configuration under 14 different possible shading scenarios
In the uniform irradiance case-U, the global maximum peak power of SP, rearranged TCT and proposed optimal configurations or topology are the same i.e., 9620 W and the maximum power will be changed in different shading scenarios

Summary

Introduction

The freely available irradiance in the atmosphere is directly converted into electricity through the photovoltaic (PV) effect with the help of solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells in a PV module. The efficiency of PV modules gradually reduced to a lower value of less than 10%, because of partial shading effect in an array [1,2,3,4]. The main conventional PV array configurations are parallel, series, series-parallel(S-P), Honeycomb (HC), bridge linked (BL) and total cross-tied (TCT) type [5,6] of connections. The TCT has the highest power output and minimum mismatch losses under various shading scenarios as presented in the literature [6,7,8].

Objectives

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Results