Photovoltaic system faults diagnosis using discrete wavelet transform based artificial neural networks

Abstract

Introduction. This research work focuses on the design and experimental validation of fault detection techniques in grid-connected solar photovoltaic system operating under Maximum Power Point Tracking mode and subjected to various operating conditions. Purpose. Six fault scenarios are considered in this study including partial shading, open circuit in the photovoltaic array, complete failure of one of the six IGBTs of the inverter and some parametric faults that may appear in controller of the boost converter. Methods. The fault detection technique developed in this work is based on artificial neural networks and uses discrete wavelet transform to extract the features for the identification of the underlying faults. By applying discrete wavelet transform, the time domain inverter output current is decomposed into different frequency bands, and then the root mean square values at each frequency band are used to train the neural network. Results. The proposed fault diagnosis method has been extensively tested on the above faults scenarios and proved to be very effective and extremely accurate under large variations in the irradiance and temperature. Practical significance. The results obtained in the binary numerical system allow it to be used as a machine code and the simulation results has been validated by MATLAB / Simulink software.