Automatic failure detection in photovoltaic systems

The present work introduces a new method for the automatic detection of misbehaviours in photovoltaic systems, minimizing the amount of data to be sensed. Different anomalous situations, including frame ( ground) derivations, highly resistive connections, battery or panel short circuits, etc. are parameterised based on a model of the PV System under study. The same characteristic parameters are extracted from a reduced set of measures and, through a statistical analysis, a correspondence can be established which indicates the state of the physical system. In an experiment, several failures were introduced in a real system, including series resistances in connections, current leak to ground, short circuit of a battery vessel, disconnection of a branch of panels, and they were accurately detected by the algorithm.