Partial shading problem solution for solar arrays fed by MPPT via permanent monitoring of individual panels

Today´s PV solar power plants would be unimaginable without Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) electronic scheme increasing significantly energy production. Partial shading of PV panels in a big solar plant including hundreds and thousands those items becomes important problem for MPPT. The results of shading may not be only the proportional diminishing of the total electrical power but that is more seriously the generating multi-extreme power-current (P-I); power-voltage (P-V) curves, disturbing meaningfully the search algorithms of MPPT. Present work proposes the solution for determination of the global maximum position on the operating P-I or P-V curves providing for MPPT algorithm precision information which prevent missteps during optimization procedure. The developed method based on permanent monitoring of PV panels with the subsequent assessment of their solar irradiation and estimation of the global maximum location for the entire group of solar panels.