A novel fault diagnosis method of PV based-on power loss and I-V characteristics

The power loss and the changes of internal I-V output characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) module in the typical fault condition were analyzed. We proposed an on-line real time fault diagnosis method for PV module, which takes into account the power loss and the internal I-V characteristics. Taking into account the changes of temperature and irradiation, the running status of the PV module were simulated in real time. Firstly, by comparing the simulated power with the measured power, it could determine whether the abnormal power loss has occurred. Then based on the change of output voltage, it could decide if short-circuit fault has occurred and estimate the number of short circuited cells roughly. Further, the value of fill factor (FF) can be utilized to determine whether aging fault has occurred and to acquire the remaining service life of the module. The results of simulation and experiment show that this method can effectively detect the partial shadow short-circuit fault and aging fault. It proves the feasibility and accuracy of the fault diagnosis method.