Detection, Classification, and Location of Open-Circuit and Short-Circuit Faults in Solar Photovoltaic Array: An Approach Using Single Sensor

Solar PV arrays are exponentially employed in all possible spheres, ranging from a few hundred watts to megawatts. In this context, fault detection, classification, and location identification are the major objective for the efficient operation and maximum power extraction from the solar PV array. In spite of the numerous existing algorithms carried out for this objective, a new experimental study on the PV fault is put forward by obtaining all the module voltages (MVs), assisted by a simple low-cost relay with a single voltage sensor. Faults taken for this study are open-circuit (OC), bypass diode OC, short-circuit (SC), and bypass diode SC types. These fault types are implemented on a 300-W (5×3) PV array system and their MVs are obtained and analyzed. The obtained results are found to be satisfactory in nature and proposed methodology can be implemented in a wide range of the PV system.