Summary
Series arc fault is one of the main failures of photovoltaic (PV) systems that should be detected as soon as possible after occurrence. Electrical shock hazard and fire in PV systems are the main consequences of delayed series arc fault detection. In this paper, an approach based on analyzing high‐frequency components of voltage signal derived by Kalman filter is presented to detect series arc fault occurrence. A criterion is defined using energy variations of the estimated harmonics for this purpose. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by plenty of simulations and experiments in different conditions. These cases include different arc lengths, electrodes movements, temporary shadings, and different types of noise. The results confirm that the proposed technique is efficient from speed response, reliability, and accuracy points of view.