ANALYSIS OF PV GRID INSTALLATIONS PERFORMANCE, COMPARING MEASURED DATA TO SIMULATION RESULTS TO IDENTIFY PROBLEMS IN OPERATION AND MONITORING

摘要

Monitoring data of grid-connected photovoltaic installations provides a valuable source to follow the operation and performance of a PV facility. Main failure modes can be spotted from the analysis of only this data. Combining measured monitoring data with detailed simulation results however, provides additional information that can reveal more subtle problems or help to track down the source of a complex malfunction. In this paper we describe how such a comparison can be performed, that would allow the detection of different kinds of problems on the module, string and inverter level. After some general considerations on how to compare measured data to simulation results, including the corresponding uncertainties, we study how possible discrepancies can point to problems either with the monitoring, the operation or the simulation results. The level of detail in the monitoring data will determine how well this assignment can be done in an unambiguous way. A tool allowing this kind of analysis is currently being implemented in the PVsyst software and its capabilities to compare monitoring data to the simulation results are being expanded.