Mitigation of arc flash hazard in photovoltaic power plants

摘要

Arc flash mitigation devices are employed to protect personnel during maintenance of photovoltaic inverters. During normal operation, an alternating current (AC) output of a photovoltaic inverter is coupled to a low voltage winding of a step up transformer through a bus-bar (B) (e.g., an electrically conductive interconnect), which has higher current rating than a fuse (F). During maintenance, the bus-bar (B) is replaced with the fuse (F). The fuse (F) may be employed in conjunction with a switch. The switch may be a disconnect switch that places the bus-bar (B) in parallel with the fuse during normal operation, and decouples the bus-bar from the fuse (F) during maintenance. The switch may also be a transfer switch that places either the bus-bar (B) or the fuse (F) in series with the AC output of the photovoltaic inverter and the low voltage winding of the step up transformer.