A Novel PV Array Reconfiguration Technique Based on Circular Array Data Structure

Partial shading condition (PSC) poses a significant challenge to solar power generation as it has a severe impact on the performance of photovoltaic (PV) systems, leading to a decrease in energy yield and reliability. Recon-figuration of PV arrays is a potential technique to deal with this challenge, however, reconfiguration techniques proposed in the past are restricted in their suitability for practical implementations in real-world installations as they are only optimal for specific shading patterns. To overcome this limitation, the article introduces a novel reconfiguration approach inspired by the circular array data structure, a commonly utilized tool in the realm of computer science. The proposed circular array transformation (CAT) technique shows great potential in miti-gating the impact of partial shading (PS) and maximizing the overall power generation across a wider range of PSCs. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is validated through simulations and experimental studies conducted on a 5 x 5 PV array. Furthermore, the scalability of the proposed reconfiguration technique is verified through extensive simulations on a 9 x 9 PV array. Comparative analysis reveals that the proposed CAT rear-rangement approach exhibits clear dominance and outperforms existing and recently published state-of-the-art reconfiguration methods.