Uptime Improvements for Photovoltaic Power Inverters

For optimum performance, the expansion of solar energy installations requires a robust and reliable infrastructure of panels, inverters and system control. Because of the geographically distributed and sometimes remote deployment of these solar power installations, reliability and performance is paramount to wider-scale adoption of these systems. Thus, it is very important to monitor the performance and identify any degradation of the critical system components early so mitigating actions can be taken. The most critical component in a solar energy system is the power inverter. The power inverter converts the DC output voltage of the panels to AC, which supports connections to the utility power grid, or to individual household power needs, depending on the size of the installation. This paper presents an innovative reliability-prediction system for photovoltaic (PV) solar power inverters. The significance of the innovation is that by supporting overall power system health management strategies and reducing maintenance costs for deployed systems by an estimated 20%, this system can save at least $26 billion a year in losses from power interruptions due to power grid failures. With savings of this magnitude, manufacturers and power providers can reduce their costs of products and services, therefore reducing the cost per kW to the consumer. Consumers in remote and isolated communities will also benefit from affordable and reliable off-grid power systems. The approach described in this paper includes hardware and software components that are easily integrated into existing inverter platforms, and provide state of health (SoH) and accurate remaining useful life (RUL) estimates. One of the best features of the approach is its modularity and easy applicability to various inverter configurations. We also will describe a real installation and remote data gathering system installed at a local solar facility.