Analysis of Photovoltaic String Failure and Health Monitoring with Module Fault Identification
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Abstract
In this paper, photovoltaic (PV) string failure analysis and health monitoring of PV modules based on a low-cost self-powered wireless sensor network (WSN) are presented. Simple and effective fault detection and diagnosis method based on the real-time operating voltage of PV modules is proposed. The proposed method is verified using the developed health monitoring system which is installed in a grid-connected PV system. Each of the PV modules is monitored via WSN to detect any individual faulty module. The analysis of PV string failure includes several electrical fault scenarios and their impact on the PV string characteristics. The results show that a degraded or faulty module exhibits low operating voltage as compared to the normal module. The developed health monitoring system also includes a graphical user interface (GUI) program which graphically displays the real-time operating voltage of each module with colors and thus helping users to identify the faulty modules easily. The faulty modules identification approach is further validated using the PV module electroluminescence (EL) imaging system. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
photovoltaic module fault detection, graphical user interface, photovoltaic string, health monitoring, Internet of Things, self-powered wireless sensor network
Divisions
umpedac
Funders
UM Power Energy Dedicated Advanced Centre (UMPEDAC), University of Malaya under the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) Program Research Grant, UMPEDAC-2018 (MOHE HICOE-UMPEDAC), RU007-2018, and RU012-2019
Publication Title
Energies
Volume
13
Issue
1
Publisher
MDPI