Edinburgh Napier University

  Partial shading is the phenomenon, which occurs when PV modules receive irregular irradiance on a PV array. Due to that, shaded PV modules are bypassed by diodes and significant reduction in power is experienced. To counter such problem, PV modules are connected in different configuration to provide alternative path for current to flow, so that the effect of partial shading is lessened and power attainment is improved. A comprehensive literature review suggests that several PV configurations are proposed namely simple-series (SS), parallel (P), series-parallel (SP), total-cross-tied (TCT), bridge-linked (BL) and honey-comb (HC). In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented to highlight the benefits and limitations of each scheme. To mitigate the limitation of other approaches, a new configuration named triple-tied (TT) is proposed. Several experiments are carried out using both MATLAB Simulink and hardware implementation to validate the performance of proposed configuration. Eleven different partial shading cases are used in the experiments to analyze the output characteristics. Based on the results, the proposed TT configuration outperforms other PV configurations except TCT. However, in TT wiring connections are significantly reduced compared to TCT which makes it favorable in many large-scale PV applications.