Fault Analysis of Solar Photovoltaic System

Abstract

Extension of grid for remote rural electrification has been a challenge due to multiple factors including scattered population, poor road and communication connectivity and difficult terrain. Moreover, since their livelihoods are generally dependent upon small-scale farming, extension of grid for house lighting, basic necessity is uneconomical for the power supply agencies. To meet the need of such remote areas generating power locally through the available natural resources is considered more feasible. Hence, focus on Photovoltaic (PV) system, small hydropower system and other renewable resources are emerging to bridge the gap. In order to improve the efficiency and reliability of the power generation, protection of the system from different fault is of critical importance. PV systems consist of power generation in DC and AC stage and both suffer from different kinds of faults that is not easily detected since it is exposed to many kinds of fault that could be environmental or electrical. A conventional fault protection method uses fuses or circuit breakers in series with PV components. Some faults in PV arrays remain undetected due to its current-limiting property of the fuses and non-linear output characteristics of PV arrays. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a fault analysis in solar photovoltaic (SPV) arrays. In this paper literature on various fault detection algorithm and techniques have been discuss, PV array has been modelled and simulated for fault detection such as line to line (L-L), line to ground (L-G), open circuit and partial shading and their output characteristic has been compare.