Impact of Horizontal Cloud Passage in the Performance of String Based Solar PV Power Plant

Solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants consist of a large number of series-connected modules with a high voltage range to reduce unwanted power losses. But, the power plants encounter a serious power loss due to one of the unavoidable scenarios in the environment i.e. cloud passage. This paper focuses on the investigation of the horizontal cloud passage impact on the performance of a 34.1kW power plant. The study has been performed in the MATLAB environment and the performance analysis has been done based on power-voltage characteristics analysis and various parameters such as power generation, losses, efficiency and performance ratio. Also, cloud passing (or movement) impact on PV plant performance has been studied using time-domain analysis. The study concluded that the PV power plants can encounter power losses of higher than 25% due to cloud passage in the environment.