Investigation of Multiple Sudoku PV Array Reconfiguration Architectures under Partial Shading

Array reconfigurations are widely preferred as a cost-effective solution for partial shading mitigation in solar PV arrays. Numerous architectures of array reconfigurations are proposed in the wide range of literature among which the Sudoku approach has gained a huge attraction due to the effective shade dispersion capability. However, recently other Sudoku-based reconfiguration strategies have been proposed and claimed to have higher shading dispersion and power enhancement than conventional Sudoku. So, in this paper, various reconfigurations i.e., Sudoku, improved Sudoku, hyper Sudoku, optimal Sudoku, modified Sudoku, triple X Sudoku, and advanced Sudoku have been critically analyzed under common multi-irradiance levels based partial shading scenarios to validate their performance in term of power losses reduction and shade dispersion in the PV arrays. The investigation has been done for a 9×9 PV array in the MATLAB environment under five partial shading scenarios using mathematical validation, power generation, losses, efficiency, and power curve analysis. It has been noticed that modified Sudoku has shown better performance and the shade dispersion of architectures depends on the nature and pattern of shading.