String-Level Ground Fault Localization for TN-Earthed Three-Phase Photovoltaic Systems

The DC-side ground fault (GF) poses significant risks to three-phase TN-earthed photovoltaic (PV) systems, as the resulting high fault current can directly damage both PV inverters and PV modules. Once a fault occurs, locating the faulty string through manual string-by-string inspection is highly time-consuming and inefficient. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of GF characteristics through fault-current analysis and a simulation-based case study covering multiple fault locations. Building on these insights, we propose an edge-AI-based GF localization approach tailored for three-phase TN-earthed PV systems. A PLECS-based simulation model that incorporates PV hysteresis effects is developed to generate diverse GF scenarios, from which correlation-based features are extracted throughout the inverter's four-stage shutdown sequence. Using the simulated dataset, a lightweight Variational Information Bottleneck (VIB)-based localization model is designed and trained, achieving over 93% localization accuracy at typical sampling rates with low computational cost, demonstrating strong potential for deployment on resource-constrained PV inverters.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Unknown venue

• Publication date

  2026-01-28

• Fields of study

  Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  arXiv 2602.12289
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Photovoltaic Failure Fact Sheets 2025

  2025cited by this paper
• Fault Detection, Classification and Localization Algorithm for Photovoltaic Array

  2021cited by this paper
• Fault Detection and Classification for Photovoltaic Systems Based on Hierarchical Classification and Machine Learning Technique

  2021cited by this paper
• Pearson Correlation Coefficient

  2020cited by this paper
• Simulation of Power Electronics Converters Using PLECS®

  2020cited by this paper
• Extended analysis on Line-Line and Line-Ground faults in PV arrays and a compatibility study on latest NEC protection standards

  2019cited by this paper
• An MPPT-Based Sensorless Line–Line and Line–Ground Fault Detection Technique for PV Systems

  2019cited by this paper
• Effects of I–V Measurement Parameters on the Hysteresis Effect and Optimization in High-Capacitance PV Module Testing

  2018cited by this paper
• Fault Location in Ungrounded Photovoltaic System Using Wavelets and ANN

  2018cited by this paper
• An Irradiance-Independent, Robust Ground-Fault Detection Scheme for PV Arrays Based on Spread Spectrum Time-Domain Reflectometry (SSTDR)

  2018cited by this paper
• Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient

  2018cited by this paper
• Fixing Weight Decay Regularization in Adam

  2017cited by this paper
• Deep Variational Information Bottleneck

  2017cited by this paper
• Parameter estimation of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells: A review

  2016cited by this paper
• Photovoltaic ground fault detection recommendations for array safety and operation

  2016cited by this paper
• A Comprehensive Review of Catastrophic Faults in PV Arrays: Types, Detection, and Mitigation Techniques

  2015cited by this paper
• PV arc-fault detection using spread spectrum time domain reflectometry (SSTDR)

  2014cited by this paper
• Photovoltaic ground fault and blind spot electrical simulations.

  2013cited by this paper
• Control Scheme of Three-Level NPC Inverter for Integration of Renewable Energy Resources Into AC Grid

  2012cited by this paper
• The effect of reverse current on the dark properties of photovoltaic solar modules

  2011cited by this paper
• Improvement and validation of a model for photovoltaic array performance

  2006cited by this paper
• The information bottleneck method

  2000cited by this paper
• Determination of solar cell diffusion capacitance and its dependence on temperature and 1 MeV electron fluence level

  1992cited by this paper
• Robust Locally Weighted Regression and Smoothing Scatterplots

  1979cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.