Abstract
The reliability of photovoltaic (PV) generators is strongly affected by the performance of Direct Current/Alternating Current (DC/AC) converters, being the major source of PV underperformance. However, generally, their reliability is not investigated at component level: thus, the present work presents a reliability analysis and the repair activity for the components of full bridge DC/AC converters. In the first part of the paper, a reliability analysis using failure rates from literature is carried out for 132 inverters (AC rated power of 350 kW each) with global AC power of 46 MW in a large scale grid-connected PV plant. Then, in the second part of the work, results from literature are compared with data obtained by analyzing industrial maintenance reports in the years 2015–2017. In conclusion, the yearly energy losses involved in the downtime are quantified, as well as their availability.
Highlights
In the last decade, energy generation using renewable energy sources (RES) has rapidly grown, at local level in nearly zero-energy buildings [1,2], to fulfil an increasing amount of electricity demand and, their self-sufficiency
Rates currents and high voltages: in such conditions, Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are preferred to bipolar juncIn the present work, the performance of three-phase full bridge Direct Current/Alternating Current (DC/Alternating Current (AC)) converters tion transistors (BJTs) and metal-oxide-semiconductor is investigated [26]
The number of some components (DC capacitors, diodes, snubbers, Direct Current (DC) and AC inductors, and instantaneous curcurCurrent and voltage (I-V) sensors) is unknown, but the maintenance reports did not detect any failure related to these devices
Summary
Energy generation using renewable energy sources (RES) has rapidly grown, at local level in nearly zero-energy buildings [1,2], to fulfil an increasing amount of electricity demand and, their self-sufficiency. The failure of a single inverter in a PV plant, may determine a significant loss of power production [10] In this context, a reliability analysis (RA) is fundamental for operators in order to identify the components most likely to fail. The RA commonly presented in literature analyzes the converters at system level, not investigating the performance of their components In this context, in [11], a model is proposed to evaluate the reliability of a PV system, whose subsystems are the PV modules and the Insulated Gate Bipolar. Proposes a reliability model to analyze several inverter designs In this context, the paper groups the devices in subcomponents: these subsystems correspond to the main failure modes of the converters rather than to their physical components.
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