Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Procedure to carry out quality checks in photovoltaic grid-connected systems: Six

cases of study
J.V. Muñoz ⇑, G. Nofuentes, J. Aguilera, M. Fuentes, P.G. Vidal
Grupo de Investigación IDEA, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Jaén, Campus de Las Lagunillas, s/n, 23071 Jaén, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Assessing the correct operation of PV grid-connected systems (PVGCS) is paramount not only for mere
Received 27 August 2010 energy and profitability concerns but also for safety reasons. Intended to this purpose, the IEC 62446
Received in revised form 10 January 2011 standard is open to some tests to be required in some circumstances, in addition to those stated in this
Accepted 11 February 2011
document. Our work proposes a procedure to carry out quality checks in PVGCS complying with this stan-
dard and dealing with some tests not mentioned in it – namely, PV generator peak power measurement,
inverter response and earth electrode measurement – so that the verification of the system gets more
Keywords:
comprehensive. This procedure was carried out in six PV plants sited in different locations with a
Grid connected systems
Test & measurement
Mediterranean climate in Spain. The most remarkable results of this experimental campaign may be
Electricty yield summarized as follows: an excellent on-site behavior of the inverters, in general very good figures for
Safety the isolation and earth electrode resistance and a scarcely relevant existence of hot spots. On the down
side, some figures for the peak power of the tested PV generators well below their nominal value were
found. The procedure described in this paper has proved to be a useful tool to assist in the verification
of a PVGCS after installation and for subsequent re-inspection or maintenance.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction be paramount for obvious reasons. However, literature has been

A very favorable legal framework, a downward cost trend and a
generous feed-in-tariff (FIT) system has boosted the PV market in
Spain since its introduction (1997–2004) to an early growth
(2004–2006) which paved the way for a takeoff (2006–2008) [1]
that eventually has led to a state of maturity (2008 onwards) in
which a slump of the annual installed PV power has taken place.
This final situation owes a good deal to a much lower FIT together
with a cap system per year but quarterly sufficed. Some figures of
the annual growth rate of PV grid-connected power may help get
an idea of the latter evolution: 202% in 2006, 376% in 2007, 391%
in 2008 and only a negligible 1% in 2009, yielded 3488 MWp in-
stalled in October 2009 [2].
Many owners of these PV grid-connected systems (PVGCS), as it
has happened in many other countries, have had to take money on
loan given the large initial investment that such systems require.
Thus, the solar electricity yield is not only essential for the profit-
ability of these systems but also a solid guarantee for the bank that
provides the credit [3]. Consequently, a proper assessment of the
safe installation and correct operation of the PVGCS turns out to
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 953 212 924; fax: +34 953 211 967.
E-mail address: jmunoz@ujaen.es (J.V. Muñoz).
URL: http://www.solar.ujaen.es (J.V. Muñoz).
often restricted to assess the performance and quality of a PV plant
according to the final yield (Yf, in kWh  kWp1  year1) and the
performance ratio (PR, dimensionless) over a year, at least [4–7],
but this simple approach has some drawbacks. First, relying on
only these two parameters leaves aside some other important as-
pects – e.g.: safety issues. Second, the calculation of parameter
PR is extremely sensitive to the accurate measurement of the irra-
diation: unfortunately, sometimes is not uncommon to find that
this parameter is not suitably measured in some PVGCS monitoring
systems – due to irradiance sensor misalignments with the PV gen-
erator, for example. Last, in most cases, obtaining the PR over a
year entails an unaffordable extent of time for the owner of the
PV plant and the independent body – a laboratory, a research
group, etc. – which might be hired to carry out this task.
In 2009 the IEC 62446 standard [8] was released, aimed at stat-
ing the minimum requirements for system documentation, com-
missioning tests and inspection of PVGCS. This document can be
used for periodic retesting and it also warns that some additional
tests could be required in some circumstances. This paper is in-
tended to make a contribution in this direction. Our work is mainly
aimed at proposing a procedure to assess the operation of a PV
plant that complies with the IEC 62446 standard, to be carried
out in a short period of time – ranging from 1 to 3 days – which
also deals with issues not addressed by the latter standard, so that
the verification of the plant turns out to be more exhaustive and

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.02.015
2864 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870
complete. In this sense, the measurement of the PV generator peak
power, the inverter response and the measurement of the resis-
tance of the earth electrode are issues addressed by this procedure
that the above IEC document does not deal with.
The above procedure was put into practice by the IDEA Research
Group from the University of Jaén (Spain) in six PV plants sited in
different locations with a Mediterranean climate in Spain, in order
to carry out a quality check of these plants. Five out of these PVGCS
were systems with 100 kW-rated inverters given the fact that until
2008 the Spanish FIT favored installations below this power
threshold. The characteristics of these six PVGCS are described
hereafter, together with the results of the experimental campaign
and the subsequent assessment of the performance of each tested
system. Some conclusions regarding the proposed procedure and
the gathered empirical results put an end to this work.
2. Proposed procedure
As commented in the previous section, this paper proposes a
procedure where the measures which are going to be taken are di-
vided into two groups: electricity yield related measures and safety
measures.
 Electricity yield related measures. All the tests addressed to know
if the photovoltaic plant is working properly with regards to
electricity production are gathered in this group of measures.
For this purpose it is paramount to know if the outputs from
the generator and the inverter are correct. To do so, several elec-
tronic devices will be required, namely an electronic load to
trace I–V curves and a power quality analyzer to measure the
grade of the output from the inverter. Besides, a DC switch will
be used to carry out a short circuit in each string in order to
measure by means of a voltmeter and a clamp ammmeter the
open voltage circuit and the short circuit current, as it will be
shown hereafter.
 Safety measurements. This group of measures includes the tests
addressed to know if the installation has any safety fault. In
Spain, almost every PV installation is ungrounded (in Germany
this is enforced by law). This fact makes compulsory the use of a
HIPOT1 to measure the leakage current and isolation resistance of
the generator. The measurement of the ground electrode resis-
tance is considered here too. To do this, it is necessary use a earth
ground tester. Likewise, a thermal imaging camera is used to look
for any abnormal overheating in solar modules, DC junction
boxes or inverters.
In the following lines we break down the steps proposed to con-
duct a quality check in PVGCS. It has to be highlighted once again
that some points presented below are not included in standard IEC
62446. In this sense, our on-site experience suggests adding these
tests to the above standard so that a more exhaustive test & mea-
surement campaign is achieved.
i. It is essential that the PV plant’s owner or the installer com-
pany provides all the necessary technical documentation as
detailed in Section 4 of the IEC 62446 standard [8].
ii. A visual inspection of the installation must be carried out. In
this initial tour, several elements of the installation should
be paid attention to. Regarding this aspect, once again the
IEC 62446 standard – Section 5.3 – provides a suitable
guideline in order to carry out such an inspection.
1
High potential tester.
iii. PV strings tests must be carried out as recommended by the
IEC 62446 standard. These tests includes two parts: first, the
open voltage has to be measured for each string using a
voltmeter with an accuracy of ±0.5% as recommended by
IEC 60904-1 standard [9]. Second, for each string, the short
circuit has to be measured using a clamp on ammeter. As
IEC 60904-1 standard [9] establishes, the clamp on ammeter
used must provide an accuracy of ±0.5%. Accomplishing the
short circuit for each string requires a DC switch rated over
the nominal short circuit current and open circuit voltage of
the string under test. With regards to how to execute the
open circuit and short circuit measures, some suitable pro-
cedures are provided in Sections 5.4.4 and 5.4.5 of the IEC
62446 standard.
The IEC 62446 standard establishes that it is not necessary to
extrapolate at standard test conditions (STC) the values of
short circuit current and open voltage circuit that are taken.
More specifically it states the current and voltage values
should be the same (typically within 5% for stable irradiance
conditions). In case of non-stable irradiance conditions, this
standard recommends to use irradiance meter reading to
adjust the current readings, but it does not state anything
about temperature corrections. However, when the genera-
tor is large the irradiance and temperature conditions could
change since the first string is measured till the last one is
measured, specially if the accessibility of junction boxes is
not adequate. In this way, irradiance and temperature differ-
ences between the first measure and the last one may lead
us to deviations over 5% despite the measured string may
not be affected by any failure. We propose to extrapolate
the open circuit and short circuit measures to STC, turning
these figures independent of the weather conditions at the
moment the short circuit current and open voltage were reg-
istered. As IEC 1829 standard states, extrapolating the
results at STC, requires measuring the irradiance incident
on the PV generator together with the temperature of the
module cells, at the same time that the open circuit voltage
and short circuit current values are collected. A suitable pro-
cedure to measure the irradiance and temperature is shown
below.
Measuring the PV generator on-plane incident irradiance
requires, an irradiance (G) sensor of the same technology
of the used modules. The sensor must be at the same tem-
perature and tilted at the same angle of the PV generator
at the moment in which data start to be gathered. A Pt100
or a J–K thermocouple pasted on the module backskin can
be used to measure the temperature in the modules cells
(Tc). An alternative way to gather these temperature mea-
surements first requires the use of a calibrated module of
the same technology of the modules of the generator and
second, to deduce the temperature from the open circuit
voltage (Voc) by using Eq. (1). Whatever method is followed,
the instruments available to measure the cell temperature
directly or by means of the open circuit voltage of a
calibrated module and the irradiance, should provide an
accuracy such that the final accuracy of the temperature lies
within ±1°C, as IEC 60904-1 standard [9] states. It is
advisable to set the irradiance sensor some time prior to
the test. This ensures that the sensor temperature equals
that of the PV generator.
V MOD;OC  V MOD;OC þ bV OC Ncs T 
T c ðKÞ ¼   ð1Þ
Ncs ½bV OC þ mK
e
ln GG 
where V MOD;OC is the calibrated module open circuit voltage at
STC (V), VMOD,OC is the calibrated module open circuit voltage
 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870
(V) at the moment of the measurement, bV OC is the cell open
circuit voltage temperature coefficient (°C1), Ncs is the num-
ber of series connected cells, T⁄ is the temperature at STC, m is
the diode ideality factor (typically m = 1, 3), K is the Boltz-
mann’s constant = 1,38  1023 JK1, is the electron’s charge
e = 1,602  1019C, G is the incident irradiance (Wm2) and
G is the irradiance at STC.
iv. Two parameters are to be verified when evaluating the
response of the inverter: the inverter efficiency and the har-
monic level injected to the grid. Consequently electrical
measurements must be collected from the inverter output
through a power quality analyzer. A digital wattmeter
instead of a power quality analyzer may be used too. Five
parameters must be measured simultaneously:
– Voltage at the maximum power point (VMPP) and current
at the maximum power point (IMPP) at the inverter input.
– Power at the inverter output PAC, by means of a power
quality analyzer or a digital wattmeter.
– G by means of a sensor of irradiance as described earlier.
The values of VMPP and IMPP can be calculated by using a volt-
meter and a clamp on ammeter at the DC input terminals of
the inverter. With such data, the inverter efficiency is
obtained at that very moment. It is interesting to obtain
the inverter efficiency at sunrise or sunset because it is usu-
ally in these hours that the irradiance is low and so is the
efficiency. Afterwards, it is advisable to repeat the same
measurements where maximum irradiance values are
achieved within two hours around noon.
Besides, it is necessary to measure the harmonic level from
the inverter using the power quality analyzer. Usually the
measures related to the efficiency of the inverter and the
harmonic level injected to the grid can be registered at the
same time, so that the time for the on-site experimental
campaign is decreased.
v. The maximum power at STC of the PV generator has to be
measured through its I–V curve under natural sunlight using
a electronic or capacitive load. If the nominal power of the
generator is over the limit admitted by the electronic load,
then the I–V curve must be traced for each subgenerator. If
an electronic load able to handle the power of the PV gener-
ator and/or subgenerators is not available, a novel proposed
procedure [10] could be used aimed to measure the power of
the generator at STC. However, using a digital wattmeter is
indispensable to develop this new procedure. Anyway, trac-
ing the I–V curve using a electronic load, requires to follow
these steps:
– Turn off the inverter(s).
– The positive pole must be connected through a DC
switch2 as commented at point (iii), whereas the negative
pole must be directly connected to the device.
– Turn on the DC switch and trace the curve I–V. At the
same time, G and Tc must be measured.
From the graph obtained and after extrapolating the
recorded I–V pairs to STC as literature proposes [11], the
main electrical parameters of the PV generator (Voc, Isc, Vmpp,
Impp, etc) and the peak power of the generator can be calcu-
lated. If the involved parameters – V–I pairs and Tc – have
been taken according with the accuracy detailed earlier
regarding Tc and the irradiance sensor is coplanar to the PV
generator being the irradiance stable during the test, the
accuracy of the maximum power at STC calculated using this
procedure lies within ±5% [11].
2
Use this as a safety element to electrically isolate the PV generator from the
electronic load.
2865
vi. The isolation resistance and the leakage current in every
generator must be measured. According to Section 5.4.7 of
IEC 62446 standard and under a 1000 V isolation test, the
minimum isolation resistance is set equal to 1 MX. In addi-
tion, we recommend to consider these following pieces of
advise:
– Switch off all varistors. The need to remove all varistors
before the measurement is related to the varistor’s ability
to close a path for electricity in the case that the voltage
between its poles is higher than their threshold voltage.
During the process of measurement the HIPOT tester sets
a high voltage (500 V or 1000 V) between short circuited
poles and ground capable of triggering the varistors. For
this reason it is necessary to remove such elements to
obtain measurements of leakage current and isolation
resistance properly.
– If possible, get several measurements close to sunrise and
solar noon. These measurements fix a maximum and
minimum respectively due to the fact that the isolation
resistance and the leakage current are strongly depen-
dent on relative humidity.
vii. The junction of the earth electrode has to be disconnected
from the rest of the PV plant ground system in order to mea-
sure the resistance of the earth electrode. To do it, an earth
ground tester is needed. The ground electrode is intended
to drain the current in the hypothetical case that an isolation
failure occurs. In this way, the ground electrode prevents the
non-active electrical parts of the installation from reaching
dangerous voltages. Besides, this element is crucial to drain
the current if the varistors are turned on, protecting the
devices and people against high voltages. Every PV plant
contains first, a DC part which includes all the elements from
the generator to the inverter input and second, an AC part
which includes the devices from the inverter input to the
grid connection point. According to the IEC 60364-4-41 stan-
dard for electrical installations in buildings [12], all accessi-
ble electrical metalworks have to be at the same voltage. It
means that the DC and AC metalworks must have the same
ground electrodes since both have the inverter in common.
Additionally, the AC values will be more restrictive than
those of the DC part when establishing the limits for resis-
tance value of the ground electrode of the PV plant [13,14].
The justification of the last assertion falls out of the scope
of analysis of this paper. Yet it is important to bear in mind
that, on the one hand the active elements of the DC part are
ungrounded having a high isolation resistance between
positive and negative pole and, on the other, as IEC 60479-
1 [15] standard establishes, it is necessary to multiply by 3
the AC current levels to cause the same damages when han-
dling DC currents.
So, since the AC part imposes a more restricted conditions to
the value of the resistance of the earth electrode than those
of the DC part, a hypothetical electrical failure in the AC part
will be considered in order to state a suitable value for the
resistance of earth electrode. In this way, the DC part will
be considered protected ensuring an adequate value for
the AC part. Thus, using the standards applied to the AC cur-
rent and forecasting the worst scenario – wet places – the
IEC 60460-4-41 standard establishes that the electrical met-
alworks of the installation cannot reach a voltage higher
than 24 V(AC) or a leakage current over 30 mA(AC). Consid-
ering those limits, the resistance of the ground electrode
diminishes to 800 X and makes it necessary the use a
residual current device with a trigger threshold of 30 mA.
Nonetheless, in Spain it is very frequent to find installations
with residual current devices of 300 mA trigger threshold
2866 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870
given that many cases of disconnections in 30 mA residual
current devices are reported. When the trigger threshold of
the residual current devices increases its value, the require-
ments for the ground electrode change to more exigent fig-
ures. So, with a maximum leakage current of 300 mA(AC)
and a maximum voltage in electrical metalworks of
24 V(AC), the resistance of the ground electrode must be
lower than 80 X. Jointly, 800 X and 80 X are high resistance
values for the ground electrode and, in broad terms, easy to
design and to get. Nevertheless, although those values are
adequate to prevent electrical hazards against human
beings, are not low enough to make the varistors work prop-
erly so causing residual dangerous overvoltages when these
devices are triggered.
Thus, the guideline chosen to establish the correct value for
the resistance of the earth electrode has been the Spanish
Building Technological Standard (NTE-IEP/1973). In Spain,
this document is not compulsory but it is advisable. The
standard shows a detailed study about how to design the
ground electrode and which the proper values for it are. Fol-
lowing the mentioned standard, we conclude that the value
of the ground electrode cannot be higher than 37 X in instal-
lations without lightning conductor or higher than 15 X in
installations with lightning conductor.
viii. Finally, several thermal images must be taken with the ther-
mal imaging camera. The thermal images of modules, junc-
tion boxes, inverters and possible shadowed modules must
be collected at G over 400 Wm2, the way that IEC 62446
standard recommends.
In a typical photovoltaic plant of 100 kW (nominal inverter AC
power) with five or four subgenerators and only one inverter,
one or three sunny days are necessary to conduct the above quality
check. It might take longer if the layout of the installation is not
convenient (subgenerators located in different roofs, junction
boxes not easily accessible, several ground electrodes, etc).
It has to be stressed once again that points iv, v and vii are not
included in the IEC 62446 standard so that some new aspects that
the standard does not deal with, have been added, completing the
IEC document.
3. Cases of study
The presented procedure was carried in six PV grid-connected
systems located in Spain by the IDEA research group. All of these
systems were affected by the Mediterranean climate. In order to
explain with more details all features of the installations Table 1
will be used. So, most of the PV plants inspected were on-roof
and had a nominal inverter power of 100 kW since this upper
threshold size benefitted from a higher feed-in-tariff until 2008
in Spain. Consequently, 100 kW installations turned into very
popular ones in this country. Another remarkable feature is that
all installations followed the central inverter scheme. Further,
every PV plant had an ungrounded electrical layout where the
electrical layout of the PV installation and the electrical layout
of the building were isolated (for those PV plants installed on-
roof). In this sense, the PV plant and the building did not share
metalworks so, there were two earth electrodes, one for the PV
installation and another for the building. In this way, although
not every visited installation had a lightning conductor, in those
installations that had one, it was connected to the earth electrode
of the building and not to the earth electrode of the PV
installation.
In order to complete the information related to the checked
installations, figures for the daily annual average horizontal irradi-
ation (Hda(0)) and temperature of the site3 have been included too
in Table 1. All the PV subgenerators (PVSG) were nearly equator-fac-
ing and tilted an angle slightly lower than the latitude.
4. Instruments used
Carrying out the proposed procedure requires having the suit-
able instruments. Most of them are instruments meant for only
one purpose since some tests involve very specific measures. The
instruments used during our experimental campaign are intro-
duced by means of Table 2, which gathers their main characteristics.
So, in order to conduct the tests aimed to know the state of the
inverters a power quality analyzer manufactured by FlukeTM
(Fig. 1-2) able to measure inverters with or without neutral conduc-
tor and with star or triangle configurations was used. On the other
hand, an earth ground tester manufactured by KainosTM (Fig. 1-4)
and a HIPOT manufactured by HipotronicTM (Fig. 1-3) were the
instruments addressed to carry out the safety-related measures.
Regarding the I–V curve tracer used (Fig. 1-1), no commercial
device able to trace I–V curves of a PV generator rated over
100 kWP has been marketed up to now, as far as we know. This fact
has led some research groups which carry out quality checks in PV
plants to develop capacitive loads by themselves intended to trace
I–V curves of large PV generators [16,17].
During the campaign of measurements carried out in the PV
installations visited by the IDEA research group, a capacitive load
manufactured by Stella™ was used to measure generators rated
below 100 kWP. When the checked generator power was over
100 kWP the measures were taken subgenerator by subgenerator
in order not to exceed the capacitive load input range. This device
provides the possibility to measure at the same time the I–V pairs
(with an accuracy of ±1%) and the irradiance from a calibrated sen-
sor (of the same technology of the generator). On the other hand
and simultaneously with I–V curve tracer, the module temperature
was measured using a Pt100 pasted on the module backskin. A
voltmeter and clamp on ammeter manufactured by Fluke™ were
used in order to accomplish the open voltage and short circuit
strings measures. Finally, a thermal image camera manufactured
by Fluke™ was used to identify abnormal overheatings. With re-
gards to the accuracy of the instruments used, it must be noted
that all of them provide an accuracy according to the procedure
previously described in Section 2.
5. Experimental results
The outputs obtained during the verifications carried out in six
PV installations, will be shown according to the same order used to
introduce the proposed procedure. This order will be used to ex-
plain the experimental results and the consequent analysis. Since
the amount of data obtained are really huge, only the most rele-
vant results are going to be commented and analysed.
i. & ii. The different installer companies provided us with all the
technical information demanded in every visited PV plant.
On the other hand, the visual inspections were really useful
to appreciate the state of the PV installations. So, regarding
the materials used, modules, wires, connection boxes,
inverters and DC switches, the conclusion is that the qual-
ity of these elements met the requirements of the IEC
62446 standard. It is worth mentioning that for those
installations which had a monitoring system, their ele-
ments were checked too, paying special attention to the
3
Data collected from PVGIS.
 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870 2867

Table 1
Main characteristics of the installations inspected, where Nmp is the number of parallel strings in each subgenerator, Nms is the number of serial modules in each string, Tda is the
daily annual average temperature and Hda(0) is the daily annual average horizontal irradiation.

Installation Province Latitude/ Modules Module Nominal power Inverter power Nmp/ Number of Hda(0) (W/m2)/
number longitude disposition technology (kWp) (kW) Nms PVSG Tda (°C)
1 Almeria 36.76°/2.74° On-roof Monocrystalline 100.08 90 8/15 4 4.59/18.9
2 Tarragona 41.15°/1.22° On-roof Monocrystalline 116.55 100 8/18 4 4.11/16.5
3 Barcelona 41.53°/1.67° On-roof Monocrystalline 119.34 100 8/18 5 4.05/16.0
4 Barcelona 41.73°/1.52° On-roof Monocrystalline 115.5 100 6/15 6 4.08/16.0
5 Malaga 37.02°/4.56° On-roof Monocrystalline 117.6 100 8/16 5 4.69/15.7
6 Malaga 37.27°/4.41° On-ground Monocrystalline 27.2 25 8/15 4 4.68/15.9

Table 2
Main characteristics of the instruments used.

Name Brand Model Measured parameters

Power quality analyzer Fluke™ 434 Inverter efficiency & output harmonic level
Ground resister meter Kainos™ GEOHM40D Resistance of ground electrode
HIPOT Hipotronics™ HV5D Isolation resistance & leakage current
Capacitive load Stella™ PV field tester 100 kW I–V curve
Multimeter Fluke™ 199C String voltage and cell temperature
Clamp on ammeter Fluke™ i400S String Current
Thermal image camera Fluke™ Ti30 Abnormal overheatings

Fig. 1. Some electronic devices used during the proposed quality check. 1. Electronic load. 2. Power quality analyzer. 3. HIPOT tester. 4. Ground resistance meter.

irradiance calibrated reference. In this sense and as com-
mented in Section 1, some misalignments were identified,
which inevitably lead to errors in irradiance measurements
(Fig. 2). Consequently, the PR calculated by the PV plant
monitoring system was affected by this error, since this
parameter is specially sensitive to irradiation measure-
ments.
On the other hand, it must be be emphasized that the PV
plants visited had accessible junction boxes. This ease has
been paramount in the study since the time necessary to
carry out the presented protocol is closely related to this
accessibility.
So, taking into account that every PV installation has its
peculiarities and after our experience, if possible, we rec-
ommend to carry out the visual inspection some days
before starting to gather the measurements, in order to pre-
pare all instruments and tools that will be needed. Further,
and leaving aside these technical aspects, a co-operative
attitude of the installer is the key to speed up the proposed
quality check procedure and make it easier.
iii. For every installation inspected and each string, the open
voltage and the short circuit current were collected. Right
after it, the values taken were extrapolated to STC in order
to contrast results between strings. The tests were really
2868 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870

Fig. 2. Two calibrated references misaligned with the PV generator in two different PV installations.

useful as just a few faulty strings were identified that did
not inject any current to the inverter. Most of these few
cases were due to blown string fuses or bad connections
between modules.
iv. Point iv boils down all the tests aimed at detecting any
electrical failure linked to the inverter. Table 3 shows some
of the data obtained in one of the photovoltaic plants stud-
ied. Although the inverter was working in the vicinity of
half its nominal power when taking the data, the results
are consistent. Note that the voltage total harmonic distor-
tion THDV – Eq. 2 – was not over 1.35%.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Pn 2
i¼2 V i
THDV ð%Þ ¼
V 21
where V1(V) is the amplitude of the fundamental harmonic
and Vi(V) stands for the value of the amplitude Vi of the
ith harmonic.
On the other hand, values for the current total harmonic dis-
tortion THDC – Eq. 3 – were adequate too, since these values
did not exceed 7%.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Pn 2ffi
i¼2 Ii
THDC ð%Þ ¼
I21
at STC of the generator by means of tracing its I–V curve
(Fig. 3), may be considered as the most important ones
within the protocol. In this sense, Table 4 gathers the STC
nominal power of the visited plants versus the experimen-
tal measured power extrapolated at STC conditions. Thus,
the fourth column shows the percentage deviation of mea-
sured peak power vs. nominal peak power. The negative
sign means that the experimental figures were lower than
the nominal ones.
After analyzing the results, the conclusion was that four of
the installations visited were working properly [18]. Except
for the case of installations 4 and 6, which are commented
below, most of the PV plants showed a measured power
ð2Þ quite similar to nominal power, in which deviation does
not exceed 9%. It must be remembered that several losses
are included in this percentage namely: dust, wire losses,
wire voltage drops, etc.
Installation number 6 showed a measured peak power well
below the nominal value due to shadowing problems
between generators. The shading was persistent even at
solar noon on January – when the quality procedure took
place – and this is the reason why this installation yielded
a reduced electricity production. On the other hand, instal-
ð3Þ
lation number 4 used a type of module which, despite its

where I1(A) is the amplitude of the fundamental harmonic

and Ii(A) stands for the value of the amplitude Ii of the ith
harmonic.
As an example, the limits of THD allowed by one Spanish
power company are to be commented. So, the Endesa SA
power company sets upper boundaries of 8% and 16% for
the THDV and THDC, respectively. Thus, the results shown
above were better by far than the established limits by the
grid company. So, the good state of the art of the inverters
nowadays must be highlighted since, the values found for
THDV and THDC for the rest of verificated inverters were
below 1.96% and 9.2% respectively. Besides, the efficiency
of the measured inverters, (ratio PAC/PDC), was higher than
95% for inverter loads above 10%.
v. According to our experience, most of the malfunctions
identified in PV plants are derived from photovoltaic gener- Fig. 3. I–V curve in STC according to [11] of a PV generator. The experimental I–V
ators (shadows, bad connections, faulty modules, etc). So, curve was traced at 952 W/m2 of incident irradiance and 42.7 °C of module
the tests addressed to know the main electrical parameters temperature.

Table 3
RMS voltage and RMS current together with their total harmonic distorsion for one inverter of 100kW nominal power. At the moment of taking the data, the inverter was
operating at 59% of its nominal power.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Neutral conductor

Voltage Current Voltage Current Voltage Current Current
(V) (A) (V) (A) (V) (A) (A)
RMS data 234 84 234.9 83 234.8 83 1.07
THD (%) 1.24 5.9 1.31 7.0 1.35 5.6 –
 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870 2869

Table 4 Table 6
Comparison between the nominal power and experimental power of the installations Resistance of earth electrode of the PV plants checked.
checked. PN is the nominal power of the installation in STC; Pexp is the experimental
maximum power of the installation extrapolated at STC. Installation verified Electrode earth resistance (X)

Pexp Pteo
1 6.5
PV plant PN (kWp) Pexp (kWp)  100 ð%Þ
Pteo 2 28
1 100.8 98.9 2 3 1.1
2 116.55 106.2 9 4 –
3 119.34 108.3 9 5 –
4 115.5 82.65 28 6 46
5 117.6 108.2 8
6 29.2 22.85 16

high efficiency, presents severe drawbacks regarding static

electricity accumulation. A drainer is required then to dis-
charge the static energy through the earth electrode. The
drainer works during the night and makes it possible to
restore a peak power close to the nominal one. We were
told that this device was to be mounted inside the inverter
and this problem would be solved.
vi. The results of the isolation measurements for different sub-
generators of one of the installations inspected are gath-
ered in Table 5. Unfortunately, there is not any Spanish
directive which determines the allowed values for leakage
current and isolation resistance in PV plants, although the
Government is preparing a Royal Decree in which those
limits will be included.
Before the IEC 62446 standard was released, only one rec-
ommendation by ASIF (Spanish PV Industry Association) Fig. 4. Thermal image of a photovoltaic generator. One of the modules has a hot
spot. The colour code on the left is given in degrees centigrade.
could be followed, considering that the limits for leakage
current and isolation resistance were 20 kX and 10 mA
original slope of the ground on which the PV generator
respectively [19]. Nowadays, with the IEC 62446 standard
was installed had to be levelled with sand; the IDEA
released, the limit proposed is more restrictive than the
research group conjectures that the filling land caused an
previous one. The standard does not state anything about
increase in the resistance of earth under the installation
leakage current, but if a test voltage of 1000V is used
and, for this reason, the ground electrode resistance was
according to the system voltage – stated by Section
abnormally high.
5.4.7.3 of IEC 62446 standard – consequently 100 lA is
viii. The thermal imaging camera has proved to be a useful tool
the allowed leakage current upper boundary since a mini-
during the campaign of measurements. In Fig. 4 an example
mum isolation resistance of 1 MX is imposed by this stan-
is shown. We show a generator with a faulty module. The
dard. Thus, following the values established by IEC 62446
module has a hot spot, caused by a cracked cell. Besides,
standard, levels of isolation resistance lower than 1 MX
the thermal imaging camera has been a suitable instrument
and leakage currents higher than 100 lA must be identified
in order to find abnormal overheatings in DC junctions
as isolation failures that may result in danger. As it can be
boxes and inverters. No abnormal overheatings were iden-
drawn from Table 5, the installation selected provided an
tified in DC junctions boxes and inverters. Only very few
excellent isolation despite the data were collected after a
hotspots in modules due to cracked cells were found.
rainy day and the measurement process was carried out
under high humidity conditions. For the rest of installations
verified the values of isolation resistance ranged between 6. Conclusions
20 MX and 90 MX, better than the results shown in Table
5, due to the dry weather conditions at the moment that In this paper a procedure to carry out quality checks in photo-
the measures were taken. voltaic grid-connected systems has been proposed. This procedure
vii. Table 6 shows the resistance measurements of the ground has been described step by step showing the instruments needed
electrode in four out of the six visited installations. The to develop each test. Although the IEC 62446 standard establishes
resistance could not be measured in two of them because how to carry out some tests addressed to verify the quality of a PV
the ground was asphaltic and the test could not be carried plant and what instruments are necessary, the presented docu-
out. The results showed are suitable and lower than 37 X ment expands and completes the standard in some aspects. In this
except for installation number six. In this installation, the way, tests in order to verify the maximum power of the generator
at STC, the response of the inverter and the resistance of the
Table 5 ground electrode have been included. These are improvements
Values of isolation resistance and leakage current for four subgenerators of 25 kWp since they address aspects that the standard does not deal with.
each (termed PVSGA, PVSGB, PVSGC y PVSGD, respectively) included in the same
Besides, the results and conclusions obtained during a experimen-
generator of 100kWp. The measurements were collected after a rainy day.
tal campaign carried out in six Spanish PV grid installations sys-
Subgenerator Isolation resistance (MX) Leak current (lA) tems have been shown too.
PVSGA 6.35 80 Six PV Spanish grid-connected installations have been verified
PVSGB 6.20 82 following the above protocol. According to the obtained results, it
PVSGC 5.10 100
must be concluded that four checks addressed to verify the power
PVSGD 6.30 81
of the PV generator at STC have yielded relatively good figures. Only
2870 J.V. Muñoz et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 2863–2870
two installations presented a serious drop of its power due to the
shadowing in one and the static electricity accumulation in another.
From the point of view of the inverters, the results show up that the
quality of these elements was really good. In this sense, the results
about the injected harmonic noise and the efficiency of the inverter,
were correct with levels better by far than those advisable, specially
those regarding injected harmonic noise. On the other hand, the
measures aimed to know the electrical isolation and the resistance
of the earth electrode, were adequate too. Only one installation sited
on filling land presented an abnormal value of the earth resistance.
Finally, thermal images have been a really useful way to detect over-
heating in inverters, modules with cracked cells or inside the DC or
AC junction boxes. In this sense, the thermal image camera is an
essential device in order to carry out the proposed procedure. The
abnormal overheatings were really reduced, only just a negligible
number of hot spots due to modules with cracked cells were found.
Taking an overall view, the tests have proved to be an excellent
way to know whether a photovoltaic installation is working prop-
erly. Although getting a good idea of the state of the PV plant pro-
duction is possible by means of the performance ratio, obtaining
conclusive results requires monitoring data during, at least, one
year. Such a long lasting analysis is not the objective of the protocol
presented here. In this way, the protocol tries to be a useful tool to
evaluate from one to three days, whether the installation is work-
ing properly from both points of view: electricity production and
safety.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation
Ministry and the ERDF within the frame of the Projects ‘Estimacion
de la energia generada por módulos fotovoltaicos de capa delgada:
influencia del espectro’ and ‘Análisis y caracterización de un siste-
ma fotovoltaico de concentración a sol real. Comparativa con otras
tecnologías fotovoltaicas’under expedient codes ENE2008-05098/
ALT and ENE2009-08302, respectively.
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