Dual‐Objective Optimization for Maximizing Photovoltaic Output Power in a Two‐Stage Single‐Phase Grid‐Tied System

Abstract

The effective utilization of photovoltaic systems (PVS) is significantly affected by partial shading (PS). Although total cross‐tied topology minimizes the power loss, the partial shading condition (PSC) decreases the output power generation and exhibits multiple power peaks in the Power Voltage characteristics. To address this issue, a dual‐objective optimization technique based on reduced search space equilibrium optimization (RSS‐EO) for a single‐phase, two‐stage grid‐connected PVS, is presented. The proposed technique accomplishes two objectives 1) maximizing power generation by reconfiguring the PV modules using a switching matrix based on irradiance equalization and 2) extracting the global maximum power (GMP) with faster convergence, negligible steady‐state oscillations, and reduced steady‐state error. The simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed RSS‐EO technique in efficiently distributing shade over the entire PV array and tracking GMP. The power enhancements achieved by RSS‐EO, particle swarm optimization, and Munkres are 23.03%, 20.02%, and 19.01%, respectively. Additionally, the proposed method exhibits an average mismatch power loss of 738 W, a fill factor of 58.1%, and a percentage power loss of 26.83%. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is evaluated based on energy calculations and shows better performance by achieving the shortest payback period of 1.6 years.