Performance Investigation of Hybrid and Conventional PV Array Configurations for Grid-connected/Standalone PV Systems

Currently, the critical challenge in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is to make them energy efficient. One of the key factors that can reduce the PV system power output is partial shading conditions (PSCs). The reduction in power output not only depends on a shaded region but also depends on the pattern of shading and physical position of shaded modules in the array. Due to PSCs, mismatch losses are induced between the shaded modules which can cause several peaks in the output power-voltage (P-V) characteristics. The series-parallel (SP), total-cross-tied (TCT), bridge-link (BL), honeycomb (HC), and triple-tied (TT) configurations are considered as conventional configurations, which are severely affected by PSCs and generate more mismatch power losses along with a greater number of local peaks. To reduce the effect of PSCs, hybrid PV array configurations, such as series-parallel: total-cross-tied (SPTCT), bridge-link: total-cross-tied (BL-TCT), honey-comb: totalcross-tied (HC-TCT) and bridge-link: honey-comb (BL-HC) are proposed. This paper briefly discusses the modeling, simulation and performance evaluation of hybrid and conventional 7x7 PV array configurations during different PSCs in a Matlab/Simulink environment. The performance of hybrid and conventional PV configurations are evaluated and compared in terms of global maximum power (GMP), voltage and currents at GMP, open and short circuit voltage and currents, mismatch power loss (MPL), fill factor, efficiency, and a number of local maximum power peaks (LMPPs).