I. Introduction
The reserve of fossil fuels as non-renewable energy is depleting and general demand of power is increasing over the years. This motivates the growing in demand of renewable energy. Therefore, demand of energy harnessed from PV (Photovoltaic) modules is increasing gradually in recent years. Solar PV plays an important role in the generation of electrical energy in distributed system and also in standalone applications. This is due to the fact that PV is a source of renewable and sustainable energy. Besides, the average selling price of PV modules is decreasing over the years as researched in [1]. Despite these advantages, it has to be appreciated that the efficiency of PV modules are very low (10–25% in general). On top of that, power attainment from PV modules varies with irradiance and temperature. Thus, throughout the day maximum efficiency cannot be ensured. Besides, PV array lose power continuously when irradiance levels are different on different modules connected together. The phenomenon when the respective PV modules on the arrays connected together are receiving different irradiance or insolation levels is known as partial shading. It can be caused by passing clouds, tree shadows, dust and bird litters. When partial shading occurs, the output power at maximum power point (MPP) of the shaded cell is reduced and this causes mismatch in the PV modules [2]. Consequently, the lower current production causes circulating current in the shaded PV cell which can increase the temperature in the cell due to mismatch losses. The phenomenon is commonly known as hot spot and can bring permanent damage to the PV cell. However, this is easily overcome by the use of bypass diode but this further causes the output performance of the PV module to be affected. Multiple peaks in the P-V characteristics of the output of the PV modules will be created due to bypassing of PV cells [3]. Consequently, smart MPPT algorithms are needed to be deployed to handle such issue.