Arc detection and prevention in a power generation system
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- obtaining a voltage measurement by measuring a voltage at a terminal of a photovoltaic power device;
determining one or more voltage magnitudes associated with one or more respective frequency components of the voltage measurement; and
upon determining that the one or more voltage magnitudes associated with one or more respective frequency components do not correspond to modulated information and that at least one of the one or more voltage magnitudes is above a threshold, setting an alarm condition.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods for arc detection in a system including one or more photovoltaic generators, one or more photovoltaic power devices and a system power device and/or a load connectible to the photovoltaic generators and/or the photovoltaic power devices. The methods measure voltage, voltage noise and/or power delivered to the load or system power device. The methods may compare one or more measurements, an aggregation of measurements and/or values estimated from the measurements to one or more thresholds, and upon a comparison indicating a potential arcing condition, an alarm condition may be set. Embodiments include an arrangement of photovoltaic generators and photovoltaic power devices for reduced-impedance voltage loops which may enhance arc-detection capabilities.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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obtaining a voltage measurement by measuring a voltage at a terminal of a photovoltaic power device; determining one or more voltage magnitudes associated with one or more respective frequency components of the voltage measurement; and upon determining that the one or more voltage magnitudes associated with one or more respective frequency components do not correspond to modulated information and that at least one of the one or more voltage magnitudes is above a threshold, setting an alarm condition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method comprising:
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measuring, by a photovoltaic power device, a first frequency voltage component of a first voltage loop to produce a first voltage measurement; measuring a second frequency voltage component of a second voltage loop to produce a second voltage measurement; comparing the first voltage measurement to the second voltage measurement; and upon determining that the first voltage measurement has a substantially larger magnitude than a magnitude of the second voltage measurement, setting an alarm condition. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for arc detection in a system including one or more photovoltaic power modules and a load coupled to the one or more photovoltaic power modules, the method for arc detection comprising:
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measuring voltage delivered to the load thereby producing a first measurement; measuring voltage produced by the one or more photovoltaic power modules thereby producing a second measurement; comparing the first measurement with the second measurement thereby producing a differential voltage measurement result; and upon the differential voltage measurement result being more than a threshold value, setting an alarm condition. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification