A novel fault diagnosis technique for photovoltaic systems based on artificial neural networks

With the exponential growth in global photovoltaic (PV) power capacity, protection of PV systems has gained prodigious importance in last few decades. Even with the use of standard protection devices in a PV system, faults occurring in a PV array may remain undetected. Inspired by the ever increasing demand for a reliable fault detection technique, several advanced techniques have been proposed in literature; especially in the last few years. Hence, this paper carries out an in depth analysis of various fault occurrences, protection challenges and ramifications due to undetected faults in PV systems. Furthermore, with a widespread literature, the paper critically reviews numerous fault detection algorithms/techniques available for PV systems which are proven to be effective and feasible to implement. The proposed study is not only limited to surveying the existing techniques but also analyzes the performance of each technique with an emphasis on its: 1) Approach, 2) Sensor requirements, 3) Ability to diagnose and localize faults, 4) Integration complexity, 5) Accuracy, 6) Applicability and 7) Implementation cost. Overall, this paper is envisioned to avail the researchers working in the field of PV systems with a valuable resource, which will assist them to enrich their research works.

A comprehensive review on protection challenges and fault diagnosis in PV systems

As any energy production system, photovoltaic (PV) installations have to be monitored to enhance system performances and to early detect failures for more reliability. There are several photovoltaic monitoring strategies based on the output of the plant and its nature. Monitoring can be performed locally on site or remotely. It measures production, focuses also on verification and follow-up of converter and communication devices' effective operation. Up to now, some faults diagnosis methods for PV components and systems have been developed. However, given the evolution of PV installations, more advanced monitoring techniques are continuously under investigation. In this paper, major photovoltaic system failures are addressed. Then techniques for photovoltaic monitoring proposed in recent literature are overviewed and analyzed to point out their differences, advantages and limits.

Luca Bonsignore

Papers

Neuro-Fuzzy fault detection method for photovoltaic systems