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Title: Simulating PV System Performance with Component Reliability Distributions

Conference ·
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Laboratories
  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

A feature developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) for simulating PV system component reliability has been integrated into the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's System Advisor Model (SAM). The PV Reliability Performance Model (PV-RPM) uses fault/failure and repair distributions to estimate impacts to power, energy production and operational costs. Realization results include the number of failures per component, failure rate, O&M costs incurred based on maintenance strategies, and energy lost based on the failure estimates. As the inputs are inherently uncertain and based on probability distributions, the model realizations include statistical confidence intervals to help bracket the probability that the sample interval contains the true mean value of the variable in question. This paper presents the current validation efforts and provides detail on how this feature is utilized in a PV performance model.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1515395
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-6A20-73959
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 25-30 June 2017, Washington, D.C.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English