Impact of Power Factors on Reliability of NPC inverter-Based PV Systems

The increasing penetration leads to the requirement of reactive power and voltage support provided by the renewable energy, such as PV. As a result, the reliability of the PV systems may be highly influenced. This paper studies the impact of power factors on reliability of NPC inverter-based PV systems, where a 225 kW system with commercial components and actual mission profile is used as the demonstration. Firstly, the lifetime estimation of the fragile components, i.e., the IGBTs and the DC Al electrolytic capacitors, are performed. Thereafter, a Monte Carlo analysis is used to evaluate the reliability of the system. The results prove the significant impacts of the power factor on reliability of the NPC inverter-based PV systems.