Simulation of Arcing Fault in PV Panel Network

We present a quick and simple method for creating a Matlab simulation of electric arc faults occurring in a network of photo-voltaic panels. The method is carried out in three stages: firstly by undertaking an experiment to extract the parameters of the photo-voltaic panel, as well as the parameters of the electric arc for an opening arc between two copper electrodes. In the second step, an analysis of the I-V characteristics of the arc and the panel makes it possible to predict the values of the arcing currents and voltages that can occur. In the third step, two simple network configurations with a series arc are modeled and realized experimentally. Finally, the measured arc currents and voltages are compared to the simulations to show the quality of the proposed method.