A Fault Detection Method for Photovoltaic Systems Based on Voltage and Current Observation and Evaluation

Tingting Pei and Xiaohong Hao
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Tingting Pei: College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Key Laboratory of Gansu Advanced Control for Industrial Processes, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical and Control Engineering Education, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China
Xiaohong Hao: College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Key Laboratory of Gansu Advanced Control for Industrial Processes, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical and Control Engineering Education, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems work chronically in various climatic outdoor conditions, therefore, faults may occur within the PV arrays in PV systems. Online fault detection for the PV arrays are important to improve the system’s reliability, safety and efficiency. In view of this, a fault-detection method based on voltage and current observation and evaluation is presented in this paper to detect common PV array faults, such as open-circuit, short-circuit, degradation and shading faults. In order to develop this detection method, fault characteristic quantities (e.g., the open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, voltage and current at the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV array) are identified first to define the voltage and current indicators; then, the fault-detection thresholds are defined by utilizing voltage and current indicators according to the characteristic information of various faults; finally, voltage and current indicators evaluated at real-time voltage and current data are compared with the corresponding thresholds to detect potential faults and fault types. The performances of the proposed method are simulated verifying by setting eight different fault patterns in the PV array. Simulation experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method, especially the capacities of distinguishing the degradation faults, partial shading faults and variable shading faults.

Keywords: photovoltaic (PV) arrays; fault detection; voltage indicators; current indicators; partial shading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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