Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques under Partial Shading Condition- A Review

Partially shaded condition (PSC) is one of the major problems in large photovoltaic generation systems. It causes losses in output power and hot spot effects. Under PSC, PV characteristic curve exhibits multiple peaks having one global maximum power point and multiple local maximum power points. Tracking the global maximum power point is one of the main challenges the design engineers have to face. The paper presents the recent work done on the development of Global Maximum Power Point Tracking (GMPPT) algorithms under partial shading condition and their comparative analysis. To have focus on GMPPT techniques used in PSC, traditional MPPT techniques that cannot distinguish GMPP from local maximum power points have not been discussed.