Power enhancement using improved maximum power point tracking for solar photovoltaic systems under partial shading

Abstract

Abstract One of the key reasons contributing to a reduction in the performance of a solar photovoltaic (SPV) system is the presence of partial shade on the solar panels. It is necessary to use maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in SPV systems to get around the non-linear behaviour of photovoltaic panels. This research analyses the reduction in power output of SPV systems caused by partial shading. In the latter part of the paper, the improved dynamic behaviour-based ant colony optimization MPPT approach under the effect of module-level partial shading is implemented in MATLAB®/Simulink®. Various partial shading levels were applied to SPV modules to evaluate the system performance. The proposed system follows the maximum power point with 99.9% accuracy and a response time of 2 ms. The addition of a weight coefficient accelerates the convergence of the algorithm.