Case Study of PV Inverter Burning Accident Investigation and On-site Diagnosis

The solar industry's rapid growth over the past several years has expanded the significance of photovoltaic (PV) systems. It is known that approximately 13% or more of fire accidents in PV systems occur in inverters, and in the case of inverters in particular, they are one of the most important pieces of equipment in PV systems in terms of cost and functionality. These solar inverter accidents cause great damage to the stable operation of the power generation system. Thus, fault analysis and accident investigation in PV systems are a fundamental task to increase reliability, efficiency, and safety in PV systems. This paper is a study conducted to analyze the causes of inverter accidents due to inverter stack burning accident in large-scale PV systems. The cause of faults are analyzed based on protection relay, practical diagnosis data, material analysis data, etc. © 2024 Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers. All rights reserved.