Operation and maintenance of back-up photovoltaic systems: An analysis based on a field study in Cameroon

Deli, Kodji; Houdji, Etienne Tchoffo; Djongyang, Noël; Njomo, Donatien

doi:10.1080/20421338.2017.1341731

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The production of energy is an immense challenge for the coming years. Indeed, the energy requirements for industrialized societies are increasing [1]. Nowadays, 80.9% of world production of primary energy is supplied from fossil resources [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently Cameroon has embarked on the use of renewable energy, which has led to the creation of a directorate of renewable energy in the ministry of energy and water. Investments have been made in the public investment budget (PIB) for the installation of renewable energy systems particularly solar energy [1], for example, public lighting in cities and the countryside by using solar street lights, solar power plants for the villages' electricity supply, battery charging stations in villages, and solar power supplies for community centers. However, as they are installed in outdoor environment, continuous exposure to harsh environmental conditions (sun beam, rainfall, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On-Field Operation and Maintenance of Photovoltaic Systems in Cameroon

Deli¹,

Djongyang²

2020

Maintenance Management

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The objectives of this work are to examine the causes of the breakdown in the photovoltaic power systems, to propose strategies to solve them, and to evaluate the field lifetime of some elements of the PV systems. The data analyzed were obtained from maintenance records and measurements over a period of 9 years (from 2007 to 2015) for the backup PV systems and 2 years (from 2016 to 2018) for photovoltaic water pumping (PVWPS) systems. It appears from this analysis that 29% of the batteries went bad (leading to curative intervention); this contributed to about 64.9% of the total breakdown registered. Using the failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) method for PVWPS, criticality is 252, 402, and 504 for inverters, PV module, and motor pump, respectively. This demonstrates that motor pumps are more sensitive than other elements in the PVWPS. This study also permitted not only to evaluate the quantity of preventive and corrective maintenance impacts on solar PV systems but also to propose maintenance strategies to rapid diagnosis of PV systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-Field Operation and Maintenance of Photovoltaic Systems in Cameroon

Deli¹,

Djongyang²

2020

Maintenance Management

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“…After the installation of PV systems, a maintenance service is needed in order to supervise their operation and to detect possible malfunctions. Maintenance operations play an important role in analyzing life expectancy and in evaluating the viability of PV systems [17], while preventive maintenance can be improved by monitoring systems [18]. It has been observed that in developing countries there is a lack of maintenance services, which necessitates a proactive program of monitoring and assistance [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvements in Performance Analysis of Photovoltaic Systems: Array Power Monitoring in Pulse Width Modulation Charge Controllers

Jiménez-Castillo

Muñoz-Rodríguez

Rus-Casas

et al. 2019

Sensors

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Various challenges should be considered when measuring photovoltaic array power and energy in pulse width modulation (PWM) charge controllers. These controllers are frequently used not only in stand-alone photovoltaic (SAPV) systems, but may also be found in photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption systems with battery storage connected to the electricity grid. An acceptable solution may be reached using expensive data acquisition systems (DASs), although this could be generally disproportionate to the relatively low cost of SAPV systems. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop new and effective monitoring techniques which will provide the PV array direct current (DC), output power (PA,dc), and PV array DC output energy (EA), thus avoiding the use of sophisticated DASs and providing high accuracy for the calculated parameters. Only transducers and electronic circuits that provide the average and true rms values of the PWM signals are needed. The estimation of these parameters through the aforementioned techniques showed high accuracy for both series and shunt PWM battery charge controllers. Normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) was lower than 2.4%, normalized mean bias error (NMBE) was between −1.5% and 1.1%, and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was within 1.6%.

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