## 1 Introduction  
Irrigation systems (ISs) have evolved significantly in recent years through progressive modernization (from traditional gravity irrigation to sprinklers and drip irrigation systems), increasing water usage efficiency [1]. The payoff of those solutions with high efficiency in water usage is a drastic increase in the electricity consumption by the pumping systems (PSs) [2]. Nowadays, the energy consumption of a pumping unit represents the highest cost of operating a PS. Currently, the PSs used for irrigating agricultural fields are supplied with electricity from the national grid in areas where this network can be found and mostly by gasoline or diesel electric generators where it is missing [3]. Because most of these systems are used during the summer, with maximum demand during the suniest days of the year, and because a photovoltaic (PV) generator produces most of the energy exactly during this period, there is an excellent integration of photovoltaic generators (PVGs) into irrigation pumping systems. The integration of photovoltaic generators into these systems offers a promising solution, particularly since PV energy production aligns with the peak irrigation demand during sunny summer days. Despite these advantages, photovoltaic pumping systems (PVPSs) face technological challenges, such as low reliability and frequent operational failures [4]. Issues like burned installations and pump failures arise from the difficulty of integrating PV generators into PSs due to power (solar radiation) intermittency and fluctuation. A first step to improve actual technology can be to identify all technical problems that must be overcome by monitoring the performance of such a system [5]. The current favorable legislation, together with the continuing price drop in PV panels, is causing the industrial and agricultural sectors to consider installing PVs powered by PVGs [6]. However, despite the economic profitability offered by photovoltaic power pumping systems (PVPSs) and the fact that their market demand is constantly growing, those types of systems still need technological maturation to become robust, durable, reliable and efficient [7]. Although there are various solutions on the market, analyzing the already existing high-power photovoltaic pumping systems (HPPVPSs), it was observed that they have low reliability and do not ensure correct operation of the system during the designed lifetime [8]. The low reliability and poor operation of HPPVPSs can be explained by the high degree of difficulty in integrating PVGs into current PSs. The photovoltaic pumping systems become particularly complex when installed power significantly exceeds 25 kW, the pumps operate at a constant pressure without water storage, the systems are isolated from external support (e.g., grid or diesel generator) or when multiple pumps are connected in series or parallel. Under these conditions, system design alone cannot sufficiently mitigate/compensate for fluctuations and intermittency in solar power. The primary challenge in PVPSs, particularly for irrigation applications, is the sudden drop in available power due to cloud cover. These rapid fluctuations (e.g., dropping from 700 W/m\({}^{2}\) to 150 W/m\({}^{2}\) within seconds) can lead to electrical shocks affecting power semiconductors, as well as hydraulic shocks such as cavitation and water hammer in hydraulic systems. Integrating hybrid PV systems or energy storage technologies can significantly mitigate these performance issues. Batteries or pumped hydro storage solutions can store excess energy for use during periods of low solar availability, while hybrid configurations with complementary energy sources (such as wind or diesel generators) enhance reliability. For isolated high-power photovoltaic direct pumping systems, where oversizing the photovoltaic system may not be economically feasible, the problems caused by photovoltaic power intermittency and fluctuations must be overcome by technological means (high-performance control system) [9].