2 Day Training
2 Day Training
OCULAR INSPECTION
Grounding is essential in any electrical system to provide a safe path for excess electrical
current to dissipate harmlessly into the ground. Without proper grounding:
1. Risk of Electrical Faults: In the event of a fault or malfunction within the solar PV system,
such as a short circuit, without proper grounding, there may not be a path for the excess
electrical current to safely dissipate. This can lead to overheating of components, electrical
arcing, and potentially fire.
They can also happen on one of the ungrounded conductors (L1, L2, or L3) on the AC side of
the system. The accidental connection could be with the frame, racking, conduit, electrical box,
or any other metal part.
A hard ground fault is a sustained, low-resistance connection between the current-carrying wire
and the metal part. This connection remains unbroken over time.
An intermittent fault is more challenging to locate. It happens when the current-carrying wire
occasionally connects to the metal part. A connection can happen during a rainstorm when
there’s less resistance, or when a tracker moves into a specific position. Over time, an
intermittent ground fault may turn into a hard ground fault.
In PV arrays, several common issues can cause a ground fault:
Installation errors like pinched wires, wires damaged during installation, or wires secured too
close to a racking edge
Thermal expansion and contraction
Wind motion that causes wiring to rub against the module frames, conduit, or racking, causing
wear on the insulation
How are solar inverters protected from a ground fault?
Solar inverters must have a ground fault detection and interruption (GFDI) device to detect and
stop ground faults. It can identify the ground fault, generate an error code, and shut down the
inverter.
The amount of current flowing through the ground fault required to trip the inverter's GFDI varies
based on the inverter type.
Isolated transformer-based inverters use a fuse as a GFDI. Some ground faults may not
have enough current to blow the fuse and shut down the inverter.
Non-isolated inverters without transformers use more sensitive GFDIs with a residual
current device (RCD). The RCD can identify ground faults at a much lower current level than a
fuse.
If the PV grounding is already in place
A PV string circuit without a ground fault will have open circuit voltage (Voc) between positive
and negative conductors. It will have zero volts from positive to ground and from negative to
ground.
When a ground fault is present, measurement will show Voc between positive and negative
conductors. It will also reveal a value other than zero on the positive to ground, negative to
ground, or both.
Let's look at an example with voltage to ground on both positive and negative sides:
First, measure between positive and negative. In this string of 16 modules, each with a Voc of
53.82 VDC, we measure 861.12 VDC, the PV string circuit open circuit voltage (16 x 53.83 =
861.12)
Next, we measure between the positive conductor and ground, and get a reading of 645.84 VDC.
Now we measure between the negative conductor and ground, and get a reading of 215.28 VDC.
We expected zero volts to ground. However, the measurements indicated voltage to ground on
both the positive and negative sides of the PV string circuit. We can divide both readings to
ground by the individual module Voc to identify the location of the ground fault.
645.84 ÷ 53.82 = 12
215.28 ÷ 53.82 = 4
These results indicate that there are 4 modules on one side of the ground fault and 12 on the
other. So the fault is located between modules 4 and 5. Rarely, module cells can create a
ground fault when they contact the module frame.