Proposal of a Methodology for Evaluating Photovoltaic Inverter Performance Using a Novel Performance Ratio
Abstract
This paper presents the development of a methodology to evaluate and compare inverters under various operating conditions. In photovoltaic power plants, inverter efficiency depends on both electrical and thermal operating points. Due to fluctuations caused by several factors in real-world photovoltaic installations, comparing different inverters can be challenging. To address this, a test setup was developed to apply the same electrical and thermal conditions to different inverters, enabling fair comparisons under identical scenarios. As a result, a new performance ratio is proposed, based on experimental data obtained from three inverters with the same output power level. The test results also enhanced energy yield estimation by accounting for thermal effects, which revealed significant performance differences among the three inverters.
Keywords
Methodology, Operating conditions, Setup, Efficiency, Performance Ratio