Reliability of Power Electronics Converters for Solar Photovoltaic Applications

The importance of power electronic converters for electricity grid equipment is increasing due to the growing distribution-level penetration of renewable energy sources. The performance of the converters mostly depends on interactions between sources, loads, and their state of operation. These devices must be operated with safety and stability under normal conditions, fault conditions, overloads, as well as different operation modes. Therefore, enhanced control strategies of power electronic converters are necessary to improve system stability.

This book for researchers and practitioners discusses enhanced control strategies, fault and failure mode classification mechanisms, and reliability analysis methods for PV modules, power electronic converters, and grid-connected PV systems, and thermal image-based monitoring. The technologies conveyed serve to improve the reliability and stability of power systems. Life calculation of converters, and case and reliability studies are included as well.

The international author team consists of researchers with a range of backgrounds from academia and industry.

Ahteshamul Haque is an assistant professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India. His research focuses on power electronics and its application in renewable energy, drives, and other areas. Prior to Jamia Millia Islamia, he was working for a multinational organisation. He has received patents and awards for his work, and established an Advanced Power Electronics Research Lab.

Frede Blaabjerg is a full professor at Aalborg University's Centre of Reliable Power Electronics, Denmark. His current research interests include power electronics and its applications such as in wind turbines, PV systems, reliability, harmonics, and adjustable speed drives. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 journal papers, and co-authored or edited fourteen books in power electronics. He is recipient of 32 IEEE Prize Paper Awards, the IEEE PELS Distinguished Service Award in 2009, the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award 2014, Global Energy Prize in 2019 and the 2020 IEEE Edison Medal. He has been President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society in 2019-2020. He was nominated in 2014-2020 by Thomson Reuters as one of the 250 most cited researchers in engineering in the world.

Huai Wang is a full professor at the Centre of Reliable Power Electronics (CORPE), Aalborg University, Denmark. His research addresses the fundamental challenges in modeling power electronic component failure mechanisms and application issues in system-level predictability, condition monitoring, circuit architecture, and robustness design. He was previously a visiting scientist at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and with the ABB Corporate Research Centre. His awards include the 2016 Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award and the 2014 Green Talents Award from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Yongheng Yang is a ZJU100 Professor at Zhejiang University, China. He received the Ph.D. degree from Aalborg University in 2014, where he was an associate professor in 2018-2020. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and two monographs. He received the 2018 IET Renewable Power Generation Premium Award. He was the IEEE Denmark Section Chair during 2019-2020. He is an associate editor for several IET/IEEE journals.

Zainul Abdin Jaffery is a professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India. He has published about 80 research papers in the area of Electronics and Electrical engineering in journals and conferences. His research focuses on digital signal processing, digital image processing, and their applications in power engineering and electronics engineering. He is a senior member of IEEE (USA).