Performance Improvement of PV Systems’ Maximum Power Point Tracker Based on a Scanning PSO Particle Strategy

Partial shading of PV systems generates many peaks in the P–V curve. These peaks have one global peak (GP), the remaining being local peaks (LPs). Metaheuristic techniques such as PSO have proven superiority in capturing the GP and avoiding entrapment in an LP in comparison to conventional techniques. In case of partial shading conditions (PSC), the GP may change its position and value in the P–V curve and the PSO is unable to capture the GP unless they reinitialize. Reinitialization of PSO particles spends a long time for convergence; and it may cause premature convergence. This paper proposes a novel strategy for scanning the new position of the GP in case of PSC changes without a need for reinitialization. The proposed strategy sends a particle to the anticipated places of peaks to search for any peak with power greater than the current GP and when it locates this new GP it will move the PSO particles directly to the new GP. This strategy reduced the reinitialization time by 650% as compared to the time required for the random reinitialization of the conventional PSO technique. Moreover; this proposed strategy completely avoids the premature convergence associated with conventional PSO techniques.