Abstract
This work presents an experimental study focused on the characterization of series arc faults in direct current (DC) photovoltaic (PV) systems. The aim of the study is to identify some relevant characteristics of arcing current, which can be obtained by means of low frequency spectral analysis of current signal. On field tests have been carried out on a real PV system, in accordance with some tests requirements of UL 1699B Standard for protection devices against PV DC arc faults. Arcing and non-arcing current signals are acquired and compared and the behavior of a set of indicators proposed by authors is analyzed. Different measurement equipment have been used, in order to study the impact of both measurement transducers and data acquisition systems on proposed indicators effectiveness. Presented results show that the considered indicators are suitable for detecting the arc presence even with commercial devices normally used for smart metering applications.
Highlights
The increasing demand and interest for green energy production has led to a widespread diffusion of distributed generation from renewable energy sources; in this framework photovoltaic (PV) systems play a very important role, with the deployment of PV plants of different sizes, from large “solar farms”, with a high number of panels strings, to small in stallations for residential and commercial applications
Series arcs are due to a loss of continuity of a conductor, connection, module or other PV system components, while parallel arcs occur between two conductors or between a conductor and ground
The length of the observation window is set in order to have a good resolution for chirp zeta transform (CZT) spectral analysis, even with short time windows; in the results presented in this paper, the observation window was set equal to 80 ms
Summary
The increasing demand and interest for green energy production has led to a widespread diffusion of distributed generation from renewable energy sources; in this framework photovoltaic (PV) systems play a very important role, with the deployment of PV plants of different sizes, from large “solar farms”, with a high number of panels strings, to small in stallations for residential and commercial applications. The arc fault detection methodology is still a challenging issue and a unique and complete solution, able to correctly operate in all working condition is not yet available In this framework the authors have proposed and patented an arc fault detection method [32], based on the measurement of a set of in dicators mainly obtained from low frequency spectral analysis of the Measurement 182 (2021) 109770 current signal. This entails some advantages concerning the constraints on measurement equipment features, in terms of both transducers, data acquisition systems and signal processing requirements. The results obtained show that the considered indicators are suitable for detecting the arc presence even when they are measured with commercial devices normally used for smart metering applications
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