Study of induced overvoltage on solar arrays

Abstract

Lightning overvoltage threatens the safe operation of PV power system. This document uses generalized modified mesh current method and establishes a time-domain multiport model of thin-wire system for lightning transient simulation for PV power system with and without external lightning protection system. Different factors of PV power system are simulated in order to study the effects of these factors on induced overvoltages. The simulation results show that when striking spots near to the output wires. The induced overvoltage is directly proportional to the peak value of lightning current. The higher the building is, the more serious the overvoltages would be. Therefore, when choosing SPD configuration, factors mentioned above should be considered comprehensively.