PV System Control to Provide Active Power Reserves Under Partial Shading Conditions

The challenges of modern power systems will inevitably impose increased ancillary service requirements to photovoltaic (PV) plants in the future, including operating reserves. Recent studies have investigated methods to maintain active power reserves without energy storage in the standard case of uniform illumination. In this paper, this functionality is extended to partial shading conditions, often encountered in PV systems. A new control scheme is proposed that permits operation at a reduced power level, estimating at the same time the shading conditions and maximum available power. This is achieved by applying a least-squares curve fitting algorithm on voltage and current measurements, without relying on any irradiance or temperature sensors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first power reserves control scheme for PV systems under partial shading presented in the literature. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method are validated under rapidly changing shading conditions through simulations and experimental tests on a 2-kW PV system prototype.