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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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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