Decision support system for photovoltaic fault detection avoiding meteorological conditions

TL;DR

This paper presents a fuzzy set-based decision support system for photovoltaic fault detection that avoids meteorological variables, improving energy optimization and fault detection accuracy in solar power facilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fault detection approach using fuzzy sets and natural language decision support, eliminating reliance on meteorological data.

Findings

Effective fault detection with real data from six photovoltaic facilities

Improved energy production optimization without meteorological variables

System is scalable and portable for different photovoltaic setups

Abstract

A fundamental issue about installation of photovoltaic solar power stations is the optimization of the energy generation and the fault detection, for which different techniques and methodologies have already been developed considering meteorological conditions. This fact implies the use of unstable and difficult predictable variables which may give rise to a possible problem for the plausibility of the proposed techniques and methodologies in particular conditions. In this line, our goal is to provide a decision support system for photovoltaic fault detection avoiding meteorological conditions. This paper has developed a mathematical mechanism based on fuzzy sets in order to optimize the energy production in the photovoltaic facilities, detecting anomalous behaviors in the energy generated by the facilities over time. Specifically, the incorrect and correct behaviors of the photovoltaic facilities have been modeled through the use of different membership mappings. From these mappings, a decision support system based on OWA operators informs of the performances of the facilities per day, by using natural language. Moreover, a state machine is also designed to determine the stage of each facility based on the stages and the performances from previous days. The main advantage of the designed system is that it solves the problem of "constant loss of energy production", without the consideration of meteorological conditions and being able to be more profitable. Moreover, the system is also scalable and portable, and complements previous works in energy production optimization. Finally, the proposed mechanism has been tested with real data, provided by Grupo Energ\'etico de Puerto Real S.A. which is an enterprise in charge of the management of six photovoltaic facilities in Puerto Real, C\'adiz, Spain, and good results have been obtained for faulting detection.