Optimized Configuration of Mismatched Photovoltaic Arrays

When the panels in a photovoltaic (PV) array are subjected to a nonuniform irradiance level, some bypass diodes may turn on, and the overall power production might be affected significantly. An increase of the power delivered by the whole array might be obtained by means of its electrical reconfiguration, that is, the change of the series-parallel connection among the panels of which it is made up. The computation of the electrical connection among the panels that ensures the maximum delivered power is a combinatorial problem requiring powerful optimization methods. This paper is devoted to the formulation of an optimization procedure for determining the best electrical configuration among the panels. The proposed algorithm requires simple mathematical calculations, and it uses a vectorized structure; thus, it is suitable to be implemented in any embedded system for the purpose of a real-time PV array reconfiguration. The algorithm is first explained by using a pilot example, and afterward, its performance is shown by applying it to a real domestic PV field. The results show that the optimization algorithm computes an optimized configuration with a low computational burden.