Optimization of photovoltaic maintenance plan by means of a FMEA approach based on real data

There have been many scientific advances in the improvement of renewable energy systems. Recently, considerable interest has been given to their optimized management during their service life due to a large increase in the number of new renewable energy source power plants. High reliability levels are as important as high yields in order to maximize the useful green energy produced. Solar energy has been one of the most popular and exploited renewable sources in the market and therefore improvements in its efficiency and reliability have had a considerable impact. All energy systems require an increase in their conversion efficiency to reduce the consumption of primary energy. Moreover, the optimization of the performance of photovoltaic systems has increased their incidence as renewable sources in global power generation and has boosted their profitability. A failure of the components and sub-components of a working energy system cause two main issues; the first direct implication for the plant is the damage of the components and sub-components, and the second indirect implication is the consequent lack of energy production due to the plant being out of order. Furthermore, unforeseen failures of the components increase the uncontrollability of photovoltaic power systems, which worsens electric grid dispatching. The work presented here provides, for the first time, a complete and new assessment of Reliability Centered Maintenance carried out using a failure mode and effect analysis approach to photovoltaic systems. We use a large volume of data derived from a database of real maintenance activities carried out by a multinational company. These data were interpreted by the opinions of experts with specialist experience in the installation, operation, and maintenance of photovoltaic power systems, from small to multi-megawatt size. The present work here has advantages over many previous studies since the information was derived from real experiences of photovoltaic systems which allowed for a more realistic risk analysis and, especially, this information was also used to revise the maintenance plan of photovoltaic installations and to optimize their effectiveness, concentrating on various failure modes which mostly affect production or which can be easily removed/reduced.