Fault evolution in photovoltaic array during night-to-day transition

Author

Zhao, Ye ; Lehman, Brad ; DePalma, Jean-Francois ; Mosesian, Jerry ; Lyons, Robert

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

28-30 June 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

This paper focuses on fault evolution in a photovoltaic array during night-to-day transition. The effect of a maximum power point tracker on fault current is first discussed. When a PV fault occurs in daylight, overcurrent protection devices work properly. However, when the same fault occurs at night, our results demonstrate that the fault current is difficult to detect. As a result, the fault might be hidden in the PV array and become a potential hazard for system efficiency and reliability.

Keywords

maximum power point trackers; photovoltaic power systems; power system faults; power system reliability; fault current; fault evolution; maximum power point tracker; night-to-day transition; photovoltaic array; system efficiency; system reliability; Arrays; Circuit faults; Fault currents; Fuses; Inverters; Power generation; Simulation; faults; maximum power point tracker (MPPT); night-to-day transition; overcurrent; photovoltaic (PV);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2010 IEEE 12th Workshop on

Conference_Location

Boulder, CO

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7462-2

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-7461-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/COMPEL.2010.5562434

Filename

5562434