Estimation and Revision: A Framework for Maximum Power Point Tracking on Partially Shaded Photovoltaic Arrays

The power-voltage (P-V) characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) array become more complex with multiple peaks under the partial shading conditions. This may cause failure for the conventional perturb and observe (P&O) method in tracking the maximum power points. This paper introduces a new two-stage maximum power point tracking (MPPT) framework, known as estimation and revision (ER). It intends to combine the offline random search using metaheuristic algorithms with the conventional online MPPT method. The feasibility of the ER method is verified in an MPPT system implemented with a specific DC-DC converter and a partially shaded PV array. The simulation results suggest that the proposed ER-MPPT framework significantly outperform the conventional P&O in terms of both efficiency and capability in tracking the global maximum power point.