Development of an intelligent maximum power point tracker using an advanced PV system test platform

The performance of photovoltaic systems is often reduced by the presence of partial shadows. The system efficiency and availability can be improved by a maximum power point tracking algorithm that is able to detect partial shading conditions and to optimize the power output. This work proposes an intelligent maximum power point tracking method that monitors the maximum power point voltage and triggers a current-voltage sweep only when a partial shadow is detected, therefore minimizing power loss due to repeated current-voltage sweeps. The proposed system is validated on an advanced, flexible photovoltaic inverter system test platform that is able to reproduce realistic partial shadow conditions, both in simulation and on hardware test system.