Reliability evaluation of photo voltaic array using cutsets

Abstract

Electrical power generation resources for green energy revolution have been the present state of the art. Photo Voltaic (PV) systems are of prime concern for solar energy extraction as an alternate source of power systems. Reliability analysis of such PV systems will be significant for future prediction and estimating the failure so as to improve the performance of the system. In this paper, a probabilistic method is used to evaluate reliability performance of solar array of a PV system. The system PV-Array includes cells, Modules, Strings. The cutset method is proposed to analyze real life grid-connected PV systems. Exponential failure rate of PV Cell is considered. For improved performance of the PV System, failure analysis has been done and the range of predicted failure rate of PV Cell is estimated to design for Reliability of the PV System array. Also evaluated, the reliability of the PV System using proposed method by neglecting higher order Cutsets. The computational results for presented by variation in failure rate of cell to designing for reliability of PV system array.