Investigation of different BPD placement topologies for shaded modules in a series-parallel configured PV array

This article investigates the performance of serial-parallel (SP) configuration of photovoltaic (PV) array under artificial arrangement for partial shading conditions (PSCs). The concept of bypass diode (BPD) is a very attractive solution to reduce the shading effect on the PV module and therefore gives better performance in such shading environment types. Various bypass diode integration (BPD) placement topologies with the solar photovoltaic (PV) modules are being investigated to demonstrate the improved performance under PSCs in the current work. The sixteen PV modules arranged in SP configuration are associated with the BPD Topologies such as (a) Without bypass diode (W-BPD) (b), Single string-single bypass diode (SS-SBPD) (c) Single string-double bypass diode (SS-DBPD) (d) Series group-bypass diode (G-BPD) (e) Staggered group-bypass diode (SG-BPD) (f) Multi level-octal bypass diode (ML-OBPD) for performance investigation. The performance assessment for all PV array supported by BPD topologies has been investigated using current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V) characteristics and comparing to show better power and voltage results at global maximum power point (GMPP), improved fill factor and minimized power losses etc. The results presented may be recommended for the appropriate PV array configuration interconnection of BPD. Overall, this article reports that the ML-OBPD based SP configured PV array is superior among the BPD topologies under the considered PSTCs.