Measurement of DC Arc-Flash Incident Energy in Large-Scale Photovoltaic Plants: A Basis for Standardization

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industry applications Vol. 56; no. 6; pp. 6033 - 6040
• Main Authors: Paudyal, Bijaya, Bolen, Michael, Short, Tom A., Woodard, Justin M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-11-2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Arc-flash; Boxes; Current measurement; Electrodes; Energy measurement; ENGINEERING; Flashover; incident energy; Inverters; personal protective equipment (PPE); photovoltaic (PV) system; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Risk assessment; safety; Standardization; Temperature measurement
• DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2020.3020535
• EISSN: 1939-9367
• ISSN: 0093-9994

The deployment of high-power dc equipment is increasing in solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, but very few studies have quantified dc arc-flash risks. Currently, PV plant owners and operators rely on theoretical, simplified models, such as those in NFPA-70E and other publications, for the assessment of risk associated with dc arc-flash. This article presents an overview of arc-flash risks in a PV system based on a series of field experiments based on IEEE-1584 in two large-scale ground-mounted PV plants. The experiments include various high-power dc equipment of a PV plant, such as central inverters, combiner boxes, recombiner boxes, string inverters, and multiple configurations of electrodes in a 20-in calibration cube. The study reveals that none of the available dc arc-flash models are applicable for a PV plant. This work is an important first step toward developing an improved model that more accurately assesses dc arc-flash risk in a PV plant.