Design and testing of two phase array reconfiguration procedure for maximizing power in solar PV systems under partial shade conditions (PSC)

•A new physical array reconfiguration technique is presented.•The two phase methodology followed guarantees effective shade dispersion.•Results obtained are way superior to SuDoKu and PSO based methods.•The proposed technology is scalable to any PV array size.•Various performance parameters are comprehensively analyzed and compared. Array reconfiguration methods for PV arrays generally follow puzzle based mathematical methods for relocating PV modules. Being size constrained, no array reconfiguration techniques in literature is a reliable solution for effective shade dispersion in large sized PV arrays. Moreover, most of the physical relocation methods do not possess a well-defined and proven methodology to disperse the shade effect of a PV array irrespective of the system architecture. Hence, in this paper, a new two phase method compatible for PV arrays of any size is outlined and tested for effective shade dispersion. Having two different phases in shade dispersion process, the two-phase technology is found highly commendable in relocating PV panels such that illustrious shade dispersion is attained. To confirm its contribution in physical relocation scheme, four shade cases are considered and tested with other methods in literature. Furthermore, based on row current calculation and bypass effect, a quantitative comparison is also performed with popular physical relocation (SuDoKu), electrical reconfiguration (PSO) and conventional (TCT) interconnection schemes. As the results suggest, the fill factor attainment for the proposed two phase method for short wide case, long wide, short narrow and long narrow cases are 72%, 62%, 81% and 75% respectively. Furthermore, except for a single pattern, the power attainment with proposed method has benchmarked minimal of 700 W power improvement compared to TCT in all shade cases.