Impact of inverter configuration on PV system reliability and energy production

Author

Pregelj, Aleksandar ; Begovic, Miroslav ; Rohatgi, Ajeet

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

1388

Lastpage

1391

Abstract

The loss of potential revenues due to PV system failures should be taken into consideration when the system´s life cycle cost predictions are calculated. We demonstrate a procedure for quantifying the effects of inverter failures (as most dominant) on total lifetime PV system energy production, and investigate the suitability of several inverter configurations based on criteria of total lifetime energy output and life cycle costs. The overall PV system performance penalty due to inverter failures depends on several factors, such as the reliability characteristics of the inverter, inverter configuration and repair time. Using the Monte Carlo analysis, a performance-adjusting coefficient that accounts for these factors is proposed, and a straightforward analysis for determining the optimal inverter configuration is described.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; invertors; life cycle costing; photovoltaic power systems; reliability; Monte Carlo analysis; energy production; inverter configuration; life cycle cost predictions; performance-adjusting coefficient; photovoltaic systems; reliability; repair time; Costs; Fuels; Inverters; Monte Carlo methods; Performance analysis; Power engineering and energy; Production systems; Reliability engineering; Resumes; System performance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190868

Filename

1190868