Real-Time Nuisance Fault Detection in Photovoltaic Generation Systems Using a Fine Tree Classifier

Collin Barker, Sam Cipkar, Tyler Lavigne, Cameron Watson and Maher Azzouz
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Collin Barker: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Sam Cipkar: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Tyler Lavigne: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Cameron Watson: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Maher Azzouz: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Nuisance faults are caused by weather events, which result in solar farms being disconnected from the electricity grid. This results in long stretches of downtime for troubleshooting as data are mined manually for possible fault causes, and consequently, cost thousands of dollars in lost revenue and maintenance. This paper proposes a novel fault detection technique to identify nuisance faults in solar farms. To initialize the design process, a weather model and solar farm model are designed to generate both training and testing data. Through an iterative design process, a fine tree model with a classification accuracy of 96.7% is developed. The proposed model is successfully implemented and tested in real-time through a server and web interface. The testbed is capable of streaming in data from a separate source, which emulates a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or weather station, then classifies the data in real-time and displays the output on another computer (which imitates an operator control room).

Keywords: nuisance faults; photovoltaic farms; machine learning; fine tree classifier; supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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