Advanced particle swarm optimization for efficient and fast global maximum power point tracking under partial shading conditions

Abstract

Partial shading (PS) is a common issue in photovoltaic systems (PVs), and it can significantly reduce the system's output power. This paper presents the advanced particle swarm optimization (APSO) algorithm. APSO is designed to alleviate the challenges posed by PS in PVs in from where of effectiveness and stability speed so that it works to achieve and maintain the global maximum power point (GMPP) under PS conditions. It leverages persistent variables to store and track system states and iterations; it also includes checks to ensure that the duty cycle remains within specified bounds facilitating more effective optimization. Additionally, APSO optimizes solar panel duty cycles and velocities to converge toward an optimal solution to improve overall power generation efficiency and settling time. The results evaluation involves testing the performance of photovoltaic panels under three different shading scenarios and comparative analysis against recent Heuristic-optimization-based GMPP techniques, this study and comparative analyses demonstrate APSO's effectiveness and superiority in terms of high efficiency that reaches 99.85% and fast settling time of GMPP at less than 0.01 second across all test cases. APSO presents a promising solution for maximizing PV power output in the presence of partial shading.