Odd-Even-Prime pattern for PV array to increase power output under partial shading conditions

Abstract

The output power of the Photovoltaic (PV) array diminishes considerably due to Partial Shading Condition (PSC). The significant factors that influence the PSC are neighboring trees, neighboring buildings, and moving clouds. This paper proposes a novel static one-time reconfiguration called “Odd-Even-Prime” (OEP) arrangement. The PV modules in the PV array are physically relocated according to the OEP arrangement. The OEP arrangement mitigates the power loss due to PSC, as well as avoid multiple peaks in P–V characteristics by effectively distributing the shade to all the possible rows. Five different partial shadings considered to study the performance of the proposed OEP arrangement. In the end, results of OEP arrangement compared with the existing “Odd-Even” method, and obtained results are validated using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The performance of the proposed technique studied with Global maximum power point (GMPP), Mismatch-Power-Loss (MPL), Fill-Factor (FF), and Efficiency (η) indices.