Review Article Open Access

Power Switch Faults, Diagnosis and Tolerant Schemes in Converters of Photovoltaic Systems- A Review

Abstract

Converters and inverters are central power processing circuits in solar photovoltaic power generation systems. Recent surveys reported that power switches and electrolytic capacitors in converters and inverters are prone to failure due to thermal effects and electrical stress. Damage of any single component either reduces the efficiency or malfunction the entire system. Since PV power stations are remotely located ,fault diagnosis and repairing of power processing stages takes few hours to months depending upon service provided by the manufacturer. If it takes more time for fault diagnosis and fault removal, it results in zero or less amount of power generation thereby decreasing the efficiency. Since the power switchesare the central part of converters , this article presents an overview of known power switch faults, switch fault monitoring, diagnosis and fault tolerant schemes in the converters of photovoltaic application. Authors of this article have a confidence that providing fault diagnosis and tolerance competence to PV power station will contribute to improve the system efficiency and reliability.

ShamkumarB.Chavan, Maheshkumar S. Chavan

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