Case Study Related to the Maintenance and On-Site Detection of Faulty Photovoltaic Panels in a 14 Years Old System Based on Thermal Camera

Abstract

The paper presents a case study related to the maintenance and on-site detection of faulty photovoltaic (PV) panels in a 14 years old on-grid system with a peak power of 17.82 kW from the National Institute for Research and Development for Energy (INCDE ICEMENERG Bucharest) using a thermal camera, followed by the on-site measurement of the output power of a healthy and some PV panels with faults (hot spots and bypass activated diode) by Current-Voltage (I-V) and Power-Voltage (P-V) curves using an HT I-V 400. Laboratory tests were performed at Standard Test Condition (STC) at the National Institute for Research and Development in Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Laboratory of Photovoltaic Systems using a PASAN Highlight Solar Simulator for the same PV panels and also electroluminescence tests were performed in order to determine the cause of the faults. Based on the results some panels can be repaired or changed with new ones in order to increase the PV system efficiency.