DC SERIES ARC FAULT DETECTION IN PV SYSTEMS BASED ON LOW FREQUENCY HARMONIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

This work presents an experimental study focused on series arc faults detection in direct current (DC) photovoltaic (PV) systems [1]. The aim is to investigate the feasibility of using a set of indicators, which can be obtained by means of low frequency harmonic analysis of current signal. On field tests on a real PV system have been carried out, in accordance with some tests requirements of UL 1699B Standard for protection devices against PV DC arc faults [2]. Arcing and non-arcing current signals are acquired and compared and the behavior of a set of indicators proposed by authors is analyzed. Different measurement equipment has been used (including a commercial platform for smart metering applications, with embedded transducer and data acquisition), in order to study the impact of both measurement transducers and data acquisition systems on proposed indicators effectiveness. The comparison among the results obtained with different metering equipment allowed verifying the feasibility of using common smart metering platforms even for arc detection purposes.