A Zeta Converter-Based Improved BLDC Motor-Driven Water Pumping System for Partial Shading Environment of Solar PV

This paper demonstrates a brushless DC motor (BLDCM) fed water pumping system driven by the solar photovoltaic array (SPVA) under dynamic partial shading conditions. For extraction of maximum power from SPVA, a zeta converter (ZC) is utilized. However, under partial shading conditions, the SPVA experience multiple maximum power points (MPP). The conventional MPP tracking methods are ineffective in identifying the global MPP points as they converge to the local MPP points. Therefore, the utmost power cannot be extracted, when SPVA working under partially shaded conditions. Thus, this paper demonstrates the use of hybrid perturb & observe and particle swarm optimization techniques to track the global MPP. In this work, the SPVA's power extracted by ZC is fed to BLDCM for water pumping application using VSI. The VSI of a BLDCM typically functions at a significantly high frequency. This work proposes operating the VSI at a fundamental switching frequency to alleviate difficulties associated with high switching frequency. The suggested system is studied in MATLAB®/Simulink environment to validate its performance under various operational instances.