Classification of Different Types of Faults in a Photovoltaic System

Over the past several years, the rapid growth of solar industry has expanded the need of photovoltaic systems(PV). Fault analysis in solar PV arrays is necessary because it helps to increase reliability, improve efficiency and also helps to provide safety in PV Systems. If the faults in a PV system are not detected in time, not only there's a reduction in the power generation capability but also the faults are cascaded through the entire system. Health monitoring of the PV system should be done continuously since its very crucial to detect the causes which may ultimately effect the performance of the system. All possible types of faults which occur in a photovoltaic system are classified, discussed and then presented in this paper. All possible types of faults which may be present on both AC and DC side of the system are mentioned in this paper. Besides different types of faults in PV array, simulation model using MATLAB for partial shading as well as for MPPT are also presented in this paper.