Real-Time Simulation of Photovoltaic System and its Performance Under Partial Shading Conditions

The green energy, energy conservation and sustainable development is globally receiving an increasing attention as the fossil fuels depletion is a global concern. Although they are not a new concept, renewable distributed generation have in the recent years garnered renewed interest within the energy sector. Solar photo voltaic systems as renewable energy nowadays takes on a fundamental role in the renewable energy sector. Photovoltaic systems output performance and efficiency relies largely on major factors such as irradiance, temperature and shading. Temporal inconsistency of the sun's irradiance due to clouds or partial shading is the leading cause of fluctuating solar power generation. The purpose of the study is to illustrate in RSCAD the real-time modelling of photovoltaic generation system under partial shading conditions. Demonstrated along is the impacts of bypass diodes addition on a partially shaded photovoltaic system performance. The influence and impacts of partial shading due to moving clouds on the modelled generation system is addressed along with recommendations for future studies or work to be undertaken in solar energy systems. The paper incorporates the use of proposed real-time simulation, a method which many similar studies have not adopted.