Reliability-based trade-off analysis of reactive power capability in PV inverters under different sizing ratio

Due to the intermittent characteristic of solar irradiance, photovoltaic (PV) inverters usually operate below rated power conditions. In this scenario, commercial PV inverters can be used to provide ancillary services, such as reactive power compensation. On the other hand, over-sizing PV inverters by increasing the number of installed PV panels can increase the generated energy during low irradiance conditions. Despite the advantages, both approaches can increase the PV inverter wear-out, leading to early failures. The trade-off between reactive power compensation and lifetime consumption under different inverter sizing ratios (ISR) was not previously addressed in the literature. Hence, this paper proposes to evaluate the system-level reliability of a single-phase two-stage PV inverter performing reactive power compensation. The analysis is carried out from three different mission profiles (Aalborg, Goiania, and Izana). The thermal loading on the inverter components is translated to lifetime prediction. The results from Goiania show that the PV inverter lifetime is reduced from 22.6 to 6.2 years when compensating reactive power. In addition, this reduction is observed in all three regions, going from 40.8 to 12.4 years and 10 to 4.4 years, for Aalborg and Izaria, respectively. To improve the lifetime, a reactive power capability factor Q(R) is applied to the maximum reactive power condition. The unreliability map is presented as a tool to match the inverter sizing ratio with reactive power capability in agreement with lifetime requirements. An economic analysis based on Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) showed that the reactive power compensation increases the costs of the system installed in Goiania with ISR = 100 % by 46.6 % in comparison with the conventional operation. These additional costs can be reduced if the reactive power is partially compensated.