On-line fault detection algorithm of a photovoltaic system using wavelet transform

• Published in: Solar energy Vol. 126; pp. 137 - 145
• Main Author: Kim, il-Song
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2016; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computer simulation; Fault detection; Fault diagnosis; Islanding detection; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic system; Photovoltaics; Sensors; Solar energy; Wavelet transform; Wavelet transform; Fault detection; Islanding detection; Photovoltaic system
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2016.01.005

•Detection algorithm for fault and anti-islanding using wavelet transform.•Fault detection using standard deviations of the wavelet coefficients.•Islanding detection using wavelet energy of the grid voltage.•Advantages of simple structure and less resources. The fault detection algorithm of a grid-connected photovoltaic system using wavelet transform is suggested in this paper. When the faults occur in the power conditioning system, the impact on the grid system is very risky. Therefore, it is necessary to detect faults in a short time period. When using the conventional detection method, extra hardware and sensors are required to detect the inverter failure; moreover, the disadvantage of the conventional method are its high cost and re-design problem if the inverter specification needs to be changed. Multi-level decomposition wavelet transformation is an efficient method to detect the fault location and components of the inverter. Prompt and accurate diagnostic function is possible using the normalized standard deviation of the wavelet coefficients. The proposed algorithm has simple calculation and precise diagnostic capabilities of the fault detection. A computer simulation is performed and the experimental result verifies the validity of the proposed method.