A novel fault diagnostic strategy for PV micro grid to achieve Reliability Centered Maintenance

Abstract

In the recent times, due to the high depletion rates of availability of fossil fuels, solar energy is substituting as one of the excellent options for power grid evolution. Any system under operation is susceptible to faults due to internal and external factors. The identification of certain faults not only consumes more time but also leads to wastage of resources due to unwanted maintenance strategies employed. This paper presents a proposal to provide an intelligent approach towards fault diagnostics of a solar micro grid with battery back-up for a reliability centered maintenance approach to supersede and improve upon preventive maintenance strategy. The paper presents an analysis of the comprehensive list of faults that may occur in a PV microgrid, the parameters needed to correctly diagnose and classify the faults and finally select a minimum number of sensors and data acquisition required for Reliability Centered Maintenance of a PV based micro grid.