Energy Management Strategy with Partial Photovoltaic Curve Scanning for Reduced Energy Storage Utilization in DC Microgrids

Partial shading conditions are common in photovoltaic (PV) systems, yet conventional energy management strategies for dc microgrids often assume uniform irradiance, leading them to rely heavily on batteries when PV systems operate under partial shading. To address this limitation, this article proposes an energy management strategy with an event-triggered partial-PV-curve scanning mechanism, offering a practical and model-free solution to mitigate the partial shading effects in microgrids. The scanning mechanism, triggered by dc-link voltage deviations, is embedded in a flexible power point tracking scheme. It bypasses local maxima and terminates once the PV power matches the demand, thereby limiting the scanning range. When the load demand exceeds the available PV maximum power, the proposed scheme senselessly completes a full-curve scan and settles at the global maximum power point, which is the best possible operating point for the given demand. By enabling the PV system to act as the primary dc-link voltage regulator even under partial shading and reducing the scanning duration, the proposed strategy aims to improve the battery usage. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is validated by both simulation and experimental results, demonstrating a reduction in battery operating time by over 34 % compared to the conventional scanning-based strategy. © 2026 IEEE.