Explainable artificial intelligence of tree-based algorithms for fault detection and diagnosis in grid-connected photovoltaic systems

Abstract

A grid-connected photovoltaic system integrates solar panels with the utility grid through a power inverter unit, allowing them to operate in parallel with the grid. Commonly known as grid-tied or on-grid solar systems, these configurations enable panels to feed electrical energy back into the grid, offering simplicity, low operating and maintenance costs, and reduced electricity bills. Despite these advantages, this environmentally friendly energy solution is still susceptible to downtimes and faults. This study utilizes advanced machine learning tree-based algorithms for fault detection and diagnosis in such systems with the goal of maintaining reliability, improving performance, and ensuring optimal energy generation. Specifically, the research investigates the effectiveness of Extra Trees as a fault detection and diagnosis algorithm through an efficient two-phase framework that consists of a binary fault detection phase followed by a multi-class fault diagnosis phase, achieving respective accuracies of 99.5% and 98.7%. In addition, the study underscores the importance of oversampling in improving results, particularly for imbalanced datasets. Moreover, explainable artificial intelligence is employed to enhance transparency in the model’s output and sensitivity to specific features in a given order. Remarkably, the findings align directly with results obtained from techniques such as feature importance averaging and incremental feature accuracy tracking. The research unveils a highly scalable, lightweight, and simple framework for fault detection and diagnosis in grid-connected photovoltaic systems.