A numerical simulation of a lightning overvoltage on a PCS and its reduction method

Abstract

A reduction method of a lightning overvoltage on a Power Conditioning System (PCS) is investigated in this paper. The capacitors installed between the circuit and grounding terminal in the PCS determine the response against a first transient. The inductances, winding capacitances and excitation losses of the coils for the filter in the PCS should be also considered for estimating the overvoltage to ground at an input terminal of the PCS. The dominant factors of the maximum overvoltage are a grounding resistance, capacitances between a frame and output terminal of a solar panel and those between the PCS and ground. The overvoltage is decreased with decreasing the grounding resistance of the structure for the solar panels. The grounding resistance of the PCS has a minor effect on the overvoltage. The overvoltage can be reduced when a common grounding method is applied. A length of a cable between the output terminal of the solar panel and the input terminal of the PCS should be as short as possible. © 2014 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.