Optimizing Method for Photovoltaic Water-Pumping Systems under Partial Shading and Changing Pump Head

Abstract

Photovoltaic systems for pumping water, based on direct current powered motor pumps, have great application in small rural regions without electrical networks. In addition, these systems provide environmental benefits by replacing fossil fuels. However, these systems reduce their performance due to partial shading, which is magnified by the internal mismatch of the PV modules. This work proposes an intelligent, low-cost, and automatic method to mitigate these effects through the electrical reconfiguration of the PV array. Unlike other reported techniques, this method considers the pump head variations. For that, the global voltage and current supplied by the PV array to the motor pump subsystem are introduced to an artificial neural network and to a third-order equation, which locates the shaded PV module and detects the pump head, respectively. A connection control implements the optimal electrical rearrangement. The selection is based on the identified partial shading pattern and pump head. Finally, the switching matrix modifies the electrical connections between the PV modules on the PV array without changing the interconnection scheme, PV array dimension, or physical location of the PVMs. The proposed approach was implemented in a real PV water pumping system. Low-cost and commercial electronic devices were used. The experimental results show that the output power of the PV array increased by 8.43%, which maintains a more stable level of water extraction and, therefore, a constant flow level.