Lightning Surge Analysis on a Large Scale Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic System

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) farms currently play a vital role in the generation of electrical power in different countries, such as Malaysia, which is moving toward the use of renewable energy. Malaysia is one of the countries with abundant sunlight and thus can use solar PV farms as alternative sources for electricity generation. However, lightning strikes frequently occur in the country. Being installed in open and flat areas, solar PV farms, especially their electronic components, are at great risk of damage caused by lightning. In this paper, the effects of lightning currents with different peak currents and waveshapes on grid-connected solar PV farms were determined to approximate the level of transient effect that can damage solar PV modules, inverters and transformers. Depending on the location of the solar PV farm, engineer can obtain information on the peak current and median current of the site from the lightning location system (LLS) and utilise the results obtained in this study to appropriately assign an SPD to protect the solar panel, inverter and the main panel that connected to the grid. Therefore, the simulation results serve as the basis for controlling the effects of lightning strikes on electrical equipment and power grids where it provides proper justification on the 'where to be installed' and 'what is the rating' of the SPD. This judgment and decision will surely reduce the expensive cost of repair and replacement of electrical equipment damages due to the lightning.

Measurement and Modelling of Leakage Current Behaviour in ZnO Surge Arresters under Various Applied Voltage Amplitudes and Pollution Conditions

“…Transmission tower protection is important in protecting electrical equipment from damage [1,2]. A natural phenomenon that usually happens on transmission towers is lightning overvoltage [3,4]. One of the ways to protect the transmission line from lightning overvoltage is by installing surge arresters [5,6].…”

Mitigation of Lightning Overvoltages Using STATCOM in Grid-Connected PV Systems

“…Lightning is an atmospheric electrical discharge, generally during thunderstorms. It is classified as intracloud, cloud-to-air, cloud to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground [3]. The lightning current and voltage can be characterised by the waveshapes through different mathematical expressions and the double exponential expression is used in this paper.…”

“…Referring to the IEEE standard, the proposed value for the lightning voltage and current impulses are 1.2/50 μs and 8/20 μs respectively [3]. Fig.…”

“…The authors in [3] presented a lightning current with short tail time and high peak increases the transient voltage and current considerably. The lightning was injected between the inverter and the photovoltaic (PV).…”

Development of a Computational Tool for Measuring Organizational Competitiveness in the Photovoltaic Power Plants

“…As a result, renewable energy is expected to grow at a rate of 2.8% per year, totaling approximately 30% of the world's electricity generation by 2040 [7]. Among the renewable energy options, Photovoltaic (PV) systems have come to lead public and industrial awareness in sustainable and renewable energy sources, which are alternatives to fossil fuels for electricity generation [8][9][10][11]. In 2016, 75 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity was installed worldwide, equivalent to the installation of more than 31,000 solar panels every hour, totaling 303 GW by the year's end [12].…”