IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i24p6525-d459942.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reliability Assessment of a Fault-Tolerant PV Multistring Inverter

Author

Listed:
  • Hugues Renaudineau

    (Electronics Engineering Department, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso 2390123, Chile)

  • Pol Paradell-Solà

    (Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya, 08930 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Lluís Trilla

    (Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya, 08930 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Alber Filba-Martinez

    (Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya, 08930 Barcelona, Spain)

  • David Cardoner

    (Technology Centre of Catalonia Eurecat, 08005 Barcelona, Spain)

  • José Luis Domínguez-García

    (Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya, 08930 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

In photovoltaic (PV) systems, the reliability of the system components, especially the power converters, is a major concern in obtaining cost effective solutions. In order to guarantee service continuity in the case of failure of elements of the PV converter, in particular, semiconductor switching devices, a solution is to design power converter with fault-tolerance capability. This can be realized by aggregating hardware redundancy on an existing converter, providing the possibility of replacement of faulty elements. This paper evaluates the reliability of a fault-tolerant power electronics converter for PV multistring application. The considered fault-tolerant design includes a single redundant switching leg, which is used in order to reconfigure the structure in case of a switch failure either on DC-AC or DC-DC stages. This paper details the reliability estimation of the considered PV multistring fault-tolerant converter. Furthermore, a comparison with a conventional structure without fault-tolerant capability is provided. The results show that the introduction of a single redundant leg allows for improving the converter mean time to failure by a factor of almost two and it reduces, by half, the power loss due to system-failure shutdowns in PV applications, while only increasing the converter cost by 2–3%.

Suggested Citation

  • Hugues Renaudineau & Pol Paradell-Solà & Lluís Trilla & Alber Filba-Martinez & David Cardoner & José Luis Domínguez-García, 2020. "Reliability Assessment of a Fault-Tolerant PV Multistring Inverter," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6525-:d:459942
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6525/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6525/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isidoro Lillo-Bravo & Pablo González-Martínez & Miguel Larrañeta & José Guasumba-Codena, 2018. "Impact of Energy Losses Due to Failures on Photovoltaic Plant Energy Balance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-23, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vorachack Kongphet & Anne Migan-Dubois & Claude Delpha & Jean-Yves Lechenadec & Demba Diallo, 2022. "Low-Cost I–V Tracer for PV Fault Diagnosis Using Single-Diode Model Parameters and I–V Curve Characteristics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-31, July.
    2. Jose-Maria Delgado-Sanchez & Isidoro Lillo-Bravo, 2020. "Influence of Degradation Processes in Lead–Acid Batteries on the Technoeconomic Analysis of Photovoltaic Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-28, August.
    3. Carlos Toledo & Lucía Serrano-Lujan & Jose Abad & Antonio Lampitelli & Antonio Urbina, 2019. "Measurement of Thermal and Electrical Parameters in Photovoltaic Systems for Predictive and Cross-Correlated Monitorization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Ryan M. Smith & Manjunath Matam & Hubert Seigneur, 2023. "Simulated Impact of Shortened Strings in Commercial and Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Arrays," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Tang, Wuqin & Yang, Qiang & Dai, Zhou & Yan, Wenjun, 2024. "Module defect detection and diagnosis for intelligent maintenance of solar photovoltaic plants: Techniques, systems and perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    6. Høiaas, Ingeborg & Grujic, Katarina & Imenes, Anne Gerd & Burud, Ingunn & Olsen, Espen & Belbachir, Nabil, 2022. "Inspection and condition monitoring of large-scale photovoltaic power plants: A review of imaging technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Jae-Sub Ko & Dae-Kyong Kim, 2021. "Localization of Disconnection Faults in PV Installations Using the Multiple Frequencies Injection Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-28, November.
    8. Stefan Baschel & Elena Koubli & Jyotirmoy Roy & Ralph Gottschalg, 2018. "Impact of Component Reliability on Large Scale Photovoltaic Systems’ Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Zhang, Feng & Wang, Xinhe & Wang, Weiyue & Zhang, Jiajia & Du, Ruijie & Li, Bingqiang & Liu, Wei, 2023. "Uncertainty analysis of photovoltaic cells to determine probability of functional failure," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    10. Hale Bakır & Adel Merabet, 2023. "Evaluation and Solution Suggestions for Engineering and Workmanship Failures during Design and Installation of Solar Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-12, February.
    11. Michael W. Hopwood & Joshua S. Stein & Jennifer L. Braid & Hubert P. Seigneur, 2022. "Physics-Based Method for Generating Fully Synthetic IV Curve Training Datasets for Machine Learning Classification of PV Failures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Kristina Kilikevičienė & Jonas Matijošius & Artūras Kilikevičius & Mindaugas Jurevičius & Vytautas Makarskas & Jacek Caban & Andrzej Marczuk, 2019. "Research of the Energy Losses of Photovoltaic (PV) Modules after Hail Simulation Using a Newly-Created Testbed," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-14, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6525-:d:459942. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.