A Fast Global Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique for Partially Shaded PV Arrays

Abstract

This paper proposes a new global MPPT method for PV array under non-uniform insolation. The proposed method first tracks the knee point using I-V characteristic which is near to the local peak of the P-V curve. Then it compares the measured power at various knee points to find the region containing global peak. Finally, it uses P&O to find the exact global peak. Thus the proposed method avoids the use of P&O to track every local peak. The performance of the proposed algorithm is further verified in MATLAB/Simulink. The results show that the proposed method is able to track global peak of PV array during Partially Shaded Conditions.