Reconfiguration of Urban Photovoltaic Arrays Using Commercial Devices

Energies

Sergio Ignacio Serna-Garcés²  Juan David Bastidas-Rodríguez¹  Carlos Andrés Ramos-Paja³ 

[1] Escuela de Ingenierías Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Telecomunicaciones, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Cra. 27 Calle 9, Bucaramanga 680002, Colombia;;Departamento de Electrónica y Telecomunicaciones, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Cra. 31 No. 54-10, Medellín 050013, ColombiaDepartamento de Energía Eléctrica y Automática, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Cra. 80 No. 65-223, Medellín 050041, Colombia;

关键词: optimal configuration;    reconfiguration;    series-parallel arrays;    embedded systems;    partial shading;    mismatching conditions;    hardware in the loop;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en9010002

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A recent approach to mitigate the adverse effects of photovoltaic (PV) arrays operating under mismatching conditions is the dynamic electrical reconfiguration of the PV panels. This paper introduces a procedure to determine the best configuration of a PV array connected in a series-parallel structure without using complex mathematical models. Such a procedure uses the experimental current vs. voltage curves of the PV panels, which are composed of multiple PV modules, to construct the power vs. voltage curves of all of the possible configurations to identify the optimal one. The main advantage of this method is the low computational effort required to reconstruct the power vs. voltage curves of the array. This characteristic enables one to implement the proposed solution using inexpensive embedded devices, which are widely adopted in industrial applications. The proposed method, and its embedded implementation, were tested using a hardware-in-the-loop simulation of the PV system. Finally, the real-time operation and benefits of the proposed solution are illustrated using a practical example based on commercial devices.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.