TY - JOUR
T1 - Centralized Control Topology for PV Farms Shading Detection and GMPP Searching Restarting Condition
AU - Negri, Cesar A.
AU - Daneshvardehnavi, Saeed
AU - Schmitt, Konrad Erich Kork
AU - Esmaeel Nezhad, Ali
AU - Nardelli, Pedro H.J.
AU - Bayne, Stephen
AU - Giesselmann, Michael G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The power output of the solar panels follows a power-voltage (P-V) characteristic containing only one Global Maximum Point (GMP) in the normal conditions. However, under Partial Shading Conditions (PSC), the unbalanced irradiance in the panels creates Local Maximum Points (LMP) in the P-V curve. Standard control techniques for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) can not properly locate the GMP, stagnating in LMPs and generating losses in the energy harvesting. Specific techniques to locate the GMP are presented in the literature. However, the condition to restart the GMP is not widely discussed. The main challenges of global search algorithms are related to the restarting conditions. Avoiding unnecessary searching and providing an assertive GMP restarting condition is crucial for PV systems operation. In every GMP search, the solar inverters oscillate the power exchanged with the grid, causing frequency and voltage variations depending on the size of the PV plant. This paper proposes a novel technique that uses a centralized controller to identify the shaded inverters, creating flags that locally start the GMP searching. The solution minimizes the number of times the search is performed by providing an assertive GMP restarting condition, saving energy, and avoiding unnecessary output power oscillation. The proposed control technique was evaluated using the data of a real 150-kW solar farm containing five inverters with two MPPT trackers each.
AB - The power output of the solar panels follows a power-voltage (P-V) characteristic containing only one Global Maximum Point (GMP) in the normal conditions. However, under Partial Shading Conditions (PSC), the unbalanced irradiance in the panels creates Local Maximum Points (LMP) in the P-V curve. Standard control techniques for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) can not properly locate the GMP, stagnating in LMPs and generating losses in the energy harvesting. Specific techniques to locate the GMP are presented in the literature. However, the condition to restart the GMP is not widely discussed. The main challenges of global search algorithms are related to the restarting conditions. Avoiding unnecessary searching and providing an assertive GMP restarting condition is crucial for PV systems operation. In every GMP search, the solar inverters oscillate the power exchanged with the grid, causing frequency and voltage variations depending on the size of the PV plant. This paper proposes a novel technique that uses a centralized controller to identify the shaded inverters, creating flags that locally start the GMP searching. The solution minimizes the number of times the search is performed by providing an assertive GMP restarting condition, saving energy, and avoiding unnecessary output power oscillation. The proposed control technique was evaluated using the data of a real 150-kW solar farm containing five inverters with two MPPT trackers each.
KW - SCADA
KW - Solar power generation
KW - central controller
KW - global searching
KW - maximum power point trackers
KW - partial shading
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126321838&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3158739
DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3158739
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126321838
SN - 2169-3536
VL - 10
SP - 28991
EP - 29008
JO - IEEE Access
JF - IEEE Access
ER -