Enhancement of power output of partially shaded photovoltaic system using optimal Sudoku puzzle based triple-tied-cross-link reconfiguration techniques

Abstract Partial shade on a photovoltaic (PV) array reduces output power because of mismatch losses. Therefore, selection of PV array configuration is one of the crucial factors to consider for maximum power output. The Triple-Tied-Cross-Link (TTCL) configuration used has lesser tied connection in contrast to the conventional Total-Cross-Tied (TCT) configuration. The performance oSf the TTCL configuration is further enhanced by applying Sudoku puzzles as a reconfiguration technique. Without changing the electrical connection, the Sudoku puzzle is used to arrange the physical placement of the modules in the PV arrays. By dispersing the shading impact over the array, the suggested arrangement reduces the amount of shade that dominates in any one row. The recommended Optimal Sudoku Puzzle (OSP)- based TTCL design’s performance has been compared to the TTCL setup for the 9 × 9 PV array. Six partial shading patterns named Group-I to Group-VI are considered to analyze the performance of the proposed reconfiguration technique. The number of parameters such as global maximum power point (GMPP), open circuit voltage, short circuit current, mismatch loss, fill factor, and efficiency are measured to show its performance under different shading patterns. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the recommended OSP- based TTCL configuration technique. It is investigated that the numerical values in the case of shading pattern Group-III for the performance parameter GMP and fill factor have increased by 11.59% and 16.90 %, respectively, as compared to TTCL configuration. The mismatch loss (ML) was achieved with the lowest value, i.e., 21.98%, when compared to the TTCL (36.13%). The 9 × 9 PV array’s efficiency in the proposed configuration is 13.33%, which is higher than that of TTCL (11.94%) arrangements. From the simulated results, the puzzle-based reconfiguration technique is found to be an optimal approach as compared to traditional configuration.