A Study on Effect of Blocking and Bypass Diodes on

Partial Shaded PV String with Compensating Circuit

Using Voltage Equalizer

Kota Kato, and Hirotaka Koizumi

Department of Electrical Engineering
Tokyo University of Science
Tokyo, Japan
E-mail: 4314616@ed.tus.ac.jp, littlespring@ieee.org

Abstract — When a photovoltaic (PV) string is in partial

shading condition, its I-V curve has multi steps and the P-V curve
has multiple maxima. Conventional MPPT (Maximum Power Dblk1 Dblk2
Point Tracking) methods could fail to track the global MPP  I1 I2  
(Maximum Power Point) in this condition. Therefore, partial

Load
V1 V2 Vout
shading compensating circuits which resolve this issue were
proposed.   
In this paper, effects of blocking diodes and bypass diodes on PV1 PV2 Shadow

PV strings with a partial shading compensating circuit using Iout

voltage equalizer is studied. As a partial shading compensating
circuit, resonant switched-capacitor converter is chosen. P-V
curves of PV string and loci of operation points were obtained by (a)
simulation with PSIM and circuit experiment. These results show
that blocking diodes prevent power consumption of shaded PV
modules around open circuit voltage. However, the effect of the 
I1 Dbyp1
bypass diodes were not observed. V1
 PV1
I. INTRODUCTION

Load
Recently, solar energy is expected as an alternative energy Shadow Iout

with the object of protecting the global environment. I2 Dbyp2
Photovoltaic (PV) system is a power generation system to V2
convert the solar energy into the electrical energy. A PV cell has  PV2
a non-linear current-voltage (I-V) characteristic and a maximum
power point (MPP) which depends on the irradiance and the
temperature. Thus, in order to increase power generation (b)
efficiency, it’s needed that the operation point of the PV is kept Fig. 1. PV modules connected in series/parallel, (a) parallel, (b) series.
at MPP. Therefore, algorithms which called maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) have been proposed and developed [1]. circuits [2]-[6], which are originally proposed as cell voltage
Generally, PV modules are connected in series and in equalizers for storage devices.
parallel to obtain the intended voltage and the power. A set of In these systems, the blocking diode and the bypass diode are
PV modules connected in series to obtain the desired voltage is not considered. In this paper, the effects of the blocking and the
called PV string. To prevent reverse current, a diode is bypass diodes on PV string with voltage equalizer are studied
connected to the PV string in series. To prevent the reverse under partial shaded condition.
voltage, a diode is connected in parallel to the PV module. These II. BLOCKING DIODE AND BYPASS DIODE
diodes are called blocking/bypass diodes. In non-uniform
irradiance condition, there are multiple maxima in the output PV array builds up with PV modules connected in series
characteristics of the PV string. The highest maximum is called and/or in parallel. Fig. 1 shows PV modules connected in
global MPP and the others are called local MPPs. Such series/parallel. In many situations, diodes are connected to the
characteristic is too complex to find the global MPP. Several PV modules in series and in parallel. These diodes are referred
algorithms have been proposed to find a global MPP in stepped to as blocking and bypass diodes. They are shown in Fig. 1 as
I-V characteristic [2]. On the other hand, the complex I- Dblk and Dbyp.
V characteristic of a PV array is reshaped with compensating

978-1-4799-8391-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 241

 PV1
Iout
Output Current of

Output Power of
the PV module Pi
the PV module Ii

PV4 Cout4 S
4 C3 
L3
0 0 PV3 Cout3 S
Output Voltage of the Output Voltage of the
PV module Vi PV module Vi
3 C2
Vout
L2
PV2 Cout2 S
2 C1
L1
Output Current Iout

Output Power Pout


PV1 Cout1 S
1

with blocking with blocking

without blocking without blocking
diode diode
diode diode Fig. 4. Resonant switched capacitor converter [1].
0 Output Voltage Vout 0 Output Voltage Vout

(a) (b) Iout

Fig. 2. Characteristics of PV modules which connected in parallel, Dblk4

(a) I-V Curve, (b) P-V Curve. 
Dbyp4 Cout4 S4
PV4 Resr3

C3
Output Current Iout
Output Current of
the PV module Ii

Dblk3 L3
PV2 
Dbyp3 Cout3 S3
PV3 Resr2 

C2 R Vout
0 0 Dblk2
Output Voltage of Output Voltage Vout L2 
the PV module Vi 
Fig. 3. I-V curves of PV modules which connected in parallel. Dbyp2 Cout2 S2
PV2 Resr1

A. Blocking Diode C1
Blocking diode is the diode which connected to a PV string Dblk1 L1
in series (i.e. Dblk in Fig. 1). Blocking diodes are used to protect 
Dbyp1 Cout1 S1
PV string from reverse current. Characteristics of parallel PV1

connected PV modules are shown in Fig. 2 where I1 and I2 are
currents of the PV modules, and P1 and P2 are output powers of
the PV modules. The I-V curves and power-voltage (P-V) curves Fig. 5. Resonant switched capacitor converter model in the simulation.
are as shown in Fig. 2. When irradiance conditions of the two
increase generation power [2]. There are two types of partial
PV modules in parallel are different, the blocking diode blocks
shading compensating circuits; the voltage controller type [4]
reverse current (shaded area in Fig. 2 (a)) and the output power
and the voltage equalizer type [3]-[7]. The voltage controller
increases from the open circuit voltage of PV2 to the open circuit
type circuit controls the output voltage of each the PV module
voltage of PV1.
to let each the PV module generates the maximum power. The
B. Bypass Diode voltage equalizer type circuits equalize the output voltages of all
Bypass diode is the diode which is connected to a PV module the PV modules in the string as a result the I-V curve of the string
in parallel (i.e. Dbyp in Fig. 1). Bypass diodes are used to make it become single step.
possible to pass the current through a PV string over the short- Fig. 4 shows the resonant switched capacitor converter
circuit current of the PV module which is in lower irradiance (ReSC) [1], which is one of the voltage equalizer type circuits.
condition. I-V curves of the PV modules which connected in In this paper, the ReSC is chosen as a subject of the study.
series are shown in Fig. 3 where I1 and I2 are currents of PV IV. SIMULATION
modules. When the string current exceeds short-circuit current
of any PV modules, the output voltage of the PV module has The simulation was carried out for five circuit topologies in
negative value and the bypass diode turns on. The total output two irradiance conditions. The circuit topologies are just the PV
characteristic is shown in right side of Fig. 3, which is called string composed of four PV modules, the PV string with ReSC,
multistep I-V curve. the PV string with ReSC and bypass (blocking) diodes, and the
PV string with ReSC, bypass diodes, and blocking diodes. Note
III. PARTIAL SHADING COMPENSATING CIRCUIT that the blocking diodes are connected to each the PV modules.
Partial shading compensating circuits have been proposed as The ReSC in simulation is shown in Fig. 5 where PV1-PV4 are
circuits which make a multistep I-V curve to a single step I-V photovoltaic module modeled on MSX-60[8], Dblk1-Dblk4 are
curve from multistep in order to make it easy to track MPP and blocking diodes, Dbyp1-Dbyp4 are bypass diodes, Cout1-Cout4 are
voltage stabilization capacitors, S1-S4 are switches, L1-L3 are

242
 TABLE I. IRRADIANCE CONDITIONS without Diode BYP
BLK BYP+BLK
Irradiance [W/m2] without Voltage Equalizing, BYP+BLK
Condition
PV1 PV2 PV3 PV4 160
A 300 500 700 1000 140
B 0 0 0 1000

Output Power Pout [W]

120
100
TABLE II. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
80
Parameters Values 60
Cout1-Cout4 [mF] 1.0 40
Capacitance
C1-C3 [μF] 7.0 20
Inductance L1-L3 [nH] 50 0
ESR Resr [mΩ] 11 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Output Voltage Vout [V]
Diode Threshold
Vth [V] 0.36 [9] (a)
Voltage
without Diode BYP
Diode On
Ron [Ω] 0.034 [9] BLK BYP+BLK
Resistance
without Voltage Equalizing, BYP+BLK
Load Resistance R [Ω] Variable
Switching 70
f [kHz] 270
Frequency 60

Output Power Pout [W]

50
inductance for resonance, C1-C3 are capacitance for resonance,
Resr1-Resr3 are sum of the equivalent series resistances (ESRs) of 40

Li and Ci, and R is the load resistance. Two irradiance conditions 30

are shown in Table I. Simulation parameters are shown in Table 20

II. The temperature of the PV array was set to 25 °C. 10

Fig. 6 shows P-V curves of the PV string with ReSC in each 0
condition where BYP means using bypass diodes, and BLK 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Output Voltage Vout [V]
means using blocking diodes. Fig. 6 shows P-V curves in (b)
condition A, and B. Each plot in Fig 6 was obtained as the
simulation result in steady-state at the given output resistance. Fig. 6. P-V curves of the PV string with ReSC,
(a) Condition A, (b) Condition B.
In the results, using bypass diodes did not make any difference
in the output power at all. Voltage equalizing keeps the output
4.5
voltages of all PV modules in positive. Therefore the bypass
Output Current of the PV module IPVi [A]

4
diodes were never turned on in steady state. Meanwhile, 3.5
blocking diodes had some effects on the output power. With 3
blocking diodes, the open circuit voltages increased. In 2.5

condition B, the maximum power also increased. This effect was 2

caused by the blocking diodes preventing reverse current. 1.5

1
However, the output power was lower than that without blocking 0.5
diodes in the range from the MPP to the open circuit voltage in 0
the condition A. That was caused by the on resistance of the -0.5
blocking diodes. Fig. 7 shows I-V curves of the PV modules -1
0 5 10 15 20 25
PV1-PV4 in the condition A. In Fig. 7 (a), the output voltages of Output Voltage of the PV module VPVi [V]
PV1 and PV2 exceeded their open circuit voltage and their (a)
currents became negative. At this time, these PV modules
4
consumed power. However, in Fig. 7 (b), the output currents of
Output Current of the PV module IPVi [A]

the PV modules were kept in positive by the blocking diodes, 3.5

and all PV modules operated up until their open circuit voltage. 3

Therefore, the open circuit voltage of the PV string with the 2.5

blocking diodes is equal to the product of the number of PV 2

modules and the highest open circuit voltage of the PV module. 1.5
On the other hand, the open circuit voltage of the PV string 1
without blocking diodes is less than above case. This difference 0.5
makes another difference in the output powers with or without 0
blocking diodes. When a PV module with extremely low -0.5
irradiance and another PV module with high irradiance are in the 0 5 10 15 20 25

same string; e.g. the condition B, the PV module with low Output Voltage of the PV module VPVi [V]
(b)
irradiance may consume the power. So using blocking diodes
has advantage in such cases. However in a uniform irradiance Fig. 7. I-V curves of PV module PV1-PV4 in condition A,
condition, blocking diode consume the energy as a resistive (a) without blocking diode, (b) with blocking diodes.
component.

243
 D1 without Blocking Diode with Blocking Diodes

6
D2
Iph 5

Dn 4

Power [W]
3
Fig. 8. PV equivalent circuit.
2
Dblk1
S1 1
PV1 Cout1
S2 C1 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Dblk2 S3 L1 Voltage [V]

PV2 Cout2 Fig. 10. P-V curves of PV string with ReSC.

S4 C2
R to prevent the reverse current when the PV module(s) in
Dblk3 S5 L2 extremely high irradiance condition and the PV module(s) in
PV3 Cout3 extremely low irradiance condition are mixed in one PV string.
S6 C3 In this situation, the open circuit voltage of the PV string and the
Dblk4 L3 output power increase. It was verified by the circuit experiment.
S7
However, the increased area is passed through during the
PV4 Cout4
S8 approach from the open circuit of the PV string to the MPP. In
most cases, the blocking diodes are not turned off but cause the
power loss owing to their on resistance. In conclusion, when
Fig. 9. Resonant Switched Capacitor Converter in the experiment. voltage equalizer is applied to a PV string, the bypass diodes and
the blocking diodes are not so much effective.
TABLE III. EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS

Parameters Values REFERENCES

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operation. On the other hand, the blocking diodes are turned off

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