Remote monitoring and failure detection for distributed small-scale PV systems

An automatic failure detection procedure for distributed small scale photovoltaic (PV) systems is presented. The procedure is based on a few input parameters where only energy output is available and irradiance and temperature are derived from a network of ground based meteorological stations. The employed PV system model is described and the fault detection is demonstrated for three cases in Nottingham. Shading is identified as the most common factor of underperformance, and wrongly declared systems are also detected and corrected, whereby the strengths and limitations of remote monitoring are discussed.