Assessment of the Economic Impact and Management Techniques on Fault Modes present in Photovoltaic Systems
Abstract
An adequate risk management system is vital at the time of making investments, especially in the photovoltaic (PV) industry, where this issue is currently under development. Therefore, to achieve a fine risk management strategy, it is important to understand the different faults mechanisms, which can be organized by means of failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA). These faults can be classified according to several criteria, such as occurrence, time before detection, time to repair and/or replace and the impact of the fault on the system and energy production. By crossing this information with economic data, fault modes can be ranked with an overall weighted cost. The ranked fault modes are used by a maintenance plan to reduce the overall cost and guide the asset management system. This paper proposes a methodology to quantify the economic impact of faults experienced in a photovoltaic power system and assess if maintenance plans can mitigate these costs.