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Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is essential for a photovoltaic (PV) system in order to maximise the utilisation of solar energy. Under partially shaded conditions (PSC), PV strings with bypass diodes exhibit multiple peaks in the power-voltage (P-V) characteristics. Although various Global MPPT (GMPPT) algorithms have been proposed to address this issue, most of them cannot distinguish between PSC and uniform insolation, leading to the scan of the entire P-V curve under uniform insolation levels. This study introduces a general method to detect the occurrence of PSC in a PV string thereby dispensing the need to scan the entire PV curve under uniform insolation. Further, a simple technique is proposed to determine the GMPP with the minimum possible search space under PSC. The proposed algorithms for the detection of partial shading and GMPPT are validated experimentally.

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