Reliability assessment of photovoltaic balance of system

The Photovoltaic (PV) system is divided mainly into two subsystems; PV modules and balance of system (BoS) subsystems. This work shows two approaches for a reliability analysis on the subsystem level of BoS; Failure mode effects criticality analysis (FMECA) and Markov Process. FMECA concerns the root causes of failures and introduces prioritization numbers to highlight critical components of BoS. Meanwhile, Markov process is a reliability methodology that aims to predict the probability of success and failure of BoS. In this way, Markov process is a supportive tool for helping decision-makers to judge the criticality of failures associated with the operation of PV systems. The Novelty of the proposed methodologies stems from analyzing the roots of failure causes of BoS components and estimating the probability of failure of these components in order to improve the early development of BoS, enhance maintenance management, and satisfy the demanding reliability by electric utilities.