2016 7th International Conference on Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications (SETIT)
An Effective Fault Detection Technique for a quasi-
Z-Source based Grid-Tied PV System
Mohamed Trabelsi, Majdi Mansouri, Haitham Abu-Rub, Hazem Nounou
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar
mohamed.trabelsi@qatar.tamu.edu
Abstract— In high performance grid-connected PV systems,
deploying a power electronics converter capable of operating
effectively in the presence of any single point of failure is essential.
One of the main advantages of Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB)
Multilevel Inverter (MLI) is the modularity. Moreover, the
association of a quasi Z-Source (qZS) network with a CHB MLI
was deeply investigated in the last decade for grid-tied PV systems.
This structure is considered as a single-stage DC/AC topology
having the capability of boosting the DC input voltage with high-
quality multilevel AC voltage, independent DC-link voltage
compensation, and control of the power transfer with high
reliability. Thus, this topology suits well fault-tolerant PV systems
due to the modularity of the CHB inverter and the flexibility of the
qZS network in controlling the DC-link voltage even under faults.
However, the effective operation of the MLI needs a continuous
monitoring to detect abnormalities and faults to provide more
effective and less interrupted energy supplies. The Exponentially
Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) method has been proved to
be among the most effective univariate techniques to detect small
and moderate faults. Thus, this paper presents an effective EWMA
based fault detection technique for a 3-phase 3-cell qZS-CHB
MLI. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed
technique in detecting faults compared to the conventional
Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) technique.
Keywords— Fault Detection, qZS Network, Multilevel Inverter,
Grid Connection, EWMA, GLRT.
I. INTRODUCTION
Globally, Photovoltaic (PV) systems market has been
expressing a growth rate of 30-40% per year in the last decades.
In a grid-tied PV system, the power electronics unit combines
all the power converters interfacing the source with the grid [1]-
[2]. These converters are typically mandatory since the storage
elements and the PV panels exhibit a variable output voltage
according to their state of charge and the connected system
respectively. For these systems, where the PV output voltage is
low, the role of the power converters is thus to interconnect the
different sources with the grid by adjusting the level of the
voltage as required. Indeed, technical performance and
reliability of the deployed inverters are key parameters that can
dramatically vary the energy production and in turn the financial
profitability of the PV system. Within this trend, topologies of
utility scale PV inverters are moving towards Multi-Level
Inverters (MLI), which provide better power quality, lighter
passive filtering components, and potential to eliminate bulky
978-1-5090-4712-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
line frequency transformers [1]-[7]. However, in high
performance grid-connected PV systems, the failure of the
power electronics converter has serious consequences on the
overall system operation. In view of an optimal utilization of the
generated electrical power and as per the general fault-tolerance
requirements, deploying a power electronics converter capable
of continuing to operate effectively in the presence of any single
point failure is essential for such systems. A large-scale solar
plant needs to tolerate short-term malfunctions while
maintaining the inverter connected to the grid and eventually
provide grid support.
One of the main advantages of Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB)
MLI is the modularity. A CHB inverter employs many partially
separated power modules (cells) [8]. Moreover, the association
of a quasi Z-Source (qZS) network with a CHB MLI was deeply
investigated in the last decade for grid-tied PV systems [9]. This
structure is considered as a single-stage DC/AC topology having
the capability of boosting the DC input voltage with high-quality
multilevel AC voltage, independent DC-link voltage
compensation, and control of the power transfer with high
reliability. If these cells are equipped with a bypass switching
device (external switch), then if one of the power modules fails
it can be bypassed and operation can continue at reduced
capacity. This even allows the faulty cell to be replaced by a new
one without turning off the system [10]-[12]. Thus, this mix-
topology suits well fault-tolerant systems considering the
advantage of the high CHB inverter’s modularity and flexibility
of the qZS network in controlling the DC-link voltage.
Nevertheless, the effective operation of the MLI requires
tight monitoring of some of key variables (to detect abnormities
and faults), which will help in selecting the reconfiguration
strategy and providing more effective and less interrupted
energy supplies. Many fault detection methods have been
discussed in the literature for MLI [13]–[15]. In [13], the output
phase voltage is used to detect the fault types and their locations
using Neural Networks. In [14], authors proposed a detection
technique based on the current path analysis according to zero
voltage switching states for only open-circuit faults in CHB
MLI. Similarly, [15] proposed an open-circuit fault detection by
means of monitoring the mean value of the output voltage in
asymmetric MLI.
Other fault detection techniques have been developed in
literature for smart grid [16]-[18] and electric power applications
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[19]-[20]. In [16], the authors applied Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) technique for modeling and recognition of smart
grid faults. While, the authors in [17] have investigated the
generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) technique to detect the
faults in smart grids using errors in the variable models. GLRT
chart is based on a likelihood ratio test for detecting a possible
abrupt event or change-point in the samples. This method has
the advantage of independence from the way the parameter is
monitored. However, GLRT is very computationally complex
and it is not widely used in industry. In [18], authors developed
a comparison study between various Statistical Process Control
(SPC) charts. The SPC statistics include Exponentially
Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) and GLRT methods. The
results showed that, under linear drifts, the GLRT method could
give good performance in detecting faults in case of large drifts.
However, for small linear drifts, the performance is deteriorated
compared to the EWMA technique.
This paper proposes a new effective fault detection technique
based control strategy for a grid-connected PV system. The fault
detection is assured using a EWMA strategy. EWMA is a widely
used univariate process monitoring technique. The advantages
of the EWMA chart in the fault detection is mainly due to its
extensive process memory and its ability to better detect small
faults.
This paper is structured as follows: in section 2, the presented
grid-connected PV system is illustrated along with its control
strategy and the applied fault detection method. The simulation
results are presented and discussed in section 3. Some
conclusions are summarized in section 4.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
A. qZS Operation
The system under study consists of a three-phase three-cell
CHB inverter where each module is fed by a qZS network (Fig.
1). The qZS network consists of an LC impedance allowing the
simultaneous turn-on of the upper and lower switches of the
same leg and in turn boosting the input voltage. These particular
cases are named shoot-through states. The remaining switching
states are considered as non-shoot-through states
During the non-shoot-through state, the inverter is controlled
as a conventional H-Bridge inverter (the upper and lower
switches of the same leg are controlled in complimentary
manner). The expression of the drawn current in phase-A iA(t) is
identical to the conventional CHB inverter output current.
During this sequence, the diode is conducting because of the
positive voltage across its terminals and capacitors are charging
(Fig. 2a) and the studied system can be illustrated by a constant
current source. The derivations of the state variables iLi1, and Vci1
for each cell (i is the cell number) are obtained by:
dVCi1
C = iLi1 (t ) − iABC (t ) = iCi1 (t ) (1)
dt
diLi1
L = Vin −VCi1 (t) = VLi1 (t) (2)
dt
In the shoot-through state, one or more cells have the upper
and lower switches of the same leg turned on simultaneously.
Then, the DC bus voltage vpn is set to zero, which isolates the
load. During this scenario, the diode is blocked due to the
negative voltage across its terminals and capacitors are
discharging through the inductors (Fig. 2b). The system
equations for this state are given by (3) and (4).
dVCi1 (t )
C = −iLi 2 (t ) = iCi1 (t) (3)
dt
di (t)
L Li1 = VCi 2 (t) +Vini (t) = VLi1(t) (4)
dt
In addition, according to Fig. 1, the output voltage VABC is
given in terms of its current and filter parameters by:
diABC (t )
VABC (t ) = Lf + rf iABC (t ) + VgridABC (t ) (5)
dt
where VABC are the CHB output voltages, VgridABC are the grid
voltage, iABC are the output currents, Lf is the filter inductance,
and rf is its parasitic resistance.
Then, the capacitors’ voltages can be expressed in steady
state as a function of the shoot-through duty ratio D (this duty
ratio is equal to the shoot-through interval over the switching
period). The boosting factor B of the converter is given by
B=vpn/Vin. Knowing that the DC-link voltage Vpn is
discontinuous, it is worth to note that the peak voltage vpn is
taken into account to calculate the boosting factor as given by
(6).
 1− D
 VCi1 = Vin
1 − 2D

 D
 VCi 2 = Vin (6)
 1 − 2D
 1
 v pni = VCi1 + VCi 2 = 1 − 2 D Vin = BVin
B. Control Strategy
In the control structure, unity power factor and low THD
current is delivered to the grid. Besides, the amount of total
power delivered to the grid is regulated through a dual-loop
control [9] employed in every qZS-CHB module to balance the
DC-link voltages (by controlling the shoot-through ratio). In the
inductor current loop, a proportional (P) controller is used to
improve the dynamic response. Beside, a PI controller is used in
the voltage loop to ensure the DC-link peak voltage regulation.
An additional loop ensures a smooth grid current injection
(using a PI controller) with unity power factor (the current is
synchronized with the grid voltage via PLL). The complete
design is shown in Fig. 3.
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Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed control strategy for the studied qZS based grid-connected PV system

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. The state scenarios of the qZS network; (a) Non-shoot-through state, (b) shoot-through state

Fig. 3. Proposed Dual-Loop Control Strategy

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III. SIMULATION RESULTS

C. Fault Detection
1) Type of Enabled Faults
During faults, the number of operational cells in the
presented system is varying, which leads to the generation of
unbalanced output voltages applied to the load. In the
following, two types of faults are illustrated and considered for
the simulation tests:
• Fault 1: if a positive switch undergoes an open circuit
failure (i.e., S11), the other switch in the same leg should
be turned on. If a negative switch undergoes a short
circuit failure, the positive one should be turned off.
These two faults lead to the loss of the highest output
voltage level (3Vpn in our case).
Simulation tests were performed using the EWMA chart to
detect small and moderate faults. The data used to evaluate the
fault detection performances are the three-phase grid currents.
To simulate multiple faults, the above-mentioned faults 1 and 2
were introduced in different switches at different times. The
testing data are spread over 20000 samples. The EWMA chart
control width and smoothing parameter are fixed to 3 and 0.25
respectively The simulation parameters are given in TABLE I.
TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Parameters
Designation Value
PV array voltage for qZS-HBI module (Vin) 60 V

• Fault 2: if a positive switch undergoes a short circuit DC-link peak voltage (vpn) 100V
failure, the other switch in the same leg should be AC grid RMS voltage (Vgrid) 150V
turned off. If a negative switch undergoes an open
qZS inductances (L1, L2) 2.5 mH
circuit failure (i.e., S13), the positive one should be
turned on. These two faults lead to the loss of the lowest qZS capacitances (C1, C2) 4.7 mF
output voltage level (-3Vpn in our case).
Filtering inductance (Lf) 5 mH
2) EWMA Technique AC grid frequency (f) 50 Hz
The EWMA technique was first introduced in [21]. It has
been widely used as forecasting and process monitoring and Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show the behavior of the 3-phase grid
diagnosis tool [22]. The EWMA control chart is easy to currents and output voltages during faults. For simplicity
implement. The design of EWMA control scheme includes reasons, faults were introduced only in phase A. Fig. 6 shows
computation of the EWMA statistic and the upper and lower the modeled and the faulty data, where Fig. 7 illustrates the
control limits. residual between these data. Then, the performance of the
EWMA based fault detection technique is shown (Fig. 9) and
Consider the following input data matrix = compared to the conventional GLRT technique (Fig. 8). One can
… ∈ × , where m and n represent the notice that the proposed EWMA technique shows higher
number of process variables and the number of observations performance in detecting faults compared to the conventional
respectively. The EWMA statistic (Z) can be computed as GLRT univariate statistic. These results confirmed that, under
follows: linear drifts (change in the mean of the process), the GLRT
method can provide a worse detection performance for small
Zi = λ X i + ( i − λ ) Zi −1 (7) linear drifts compared to EWMA.
where λ is the smoothing parameter, which changes the
memory of the detection statistic. In this work, the fault is
detected by monitoring the injected grid current signature. Thus, 400
the input data matrix X consists of the measured values of the VA
3-Phase Output Voltages (V)

grid current. The upper and lower control limits are defined in
terms of the standard deviation of the EWMA statistic and are VC
200
computed as follows: VB
λ 
1 − (1 − λ ) 
2i
UCL = μ0 + Lσ (8)
2−λ   0

λ 
1 − (1 − λ ) 
2i
LCL = μ0 − Lσ (9)
2−λ   -200
where μ0 is the target value , L is defined as the control width
of the EWMA chart, and σ is the standard deviation of the fault
free data. Whenever the control statistic falls outside the range -400
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
of the control limits, the process is considered to be out of Time(s)
control. For an optimal use of the EWMA method, the
smoothing parameter needs to be selected carefully. Generally,
a value in the range of 0.2 to 0.3 is considered optimal [23].
Fig. 4. Three-Phase qZS-CHB output voltages during faults

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15
iA GLRT statistic
GLRT statistic threshold
3-Phase Grid Currents (A)

10 iC
0
iB 10
5

GLRT S tatistic
0

-5
-5 10

-10

-15
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 -10
Time(s) 10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Sample Number x 10
4

Fig. 5. Three-Phase Grid Currents during faults. Fig. 8. GLRT statistic performance during multiple faults in Cell1

15 1.5
Faulty data Modeled data EWMA statistic
10 1 UCLEWMA
Phase A Current (A)

LCLEWMA
EW M A statistic

5 0.5

0 0

-5 -0.5

-10 -1

-15 -1.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Sample Number x 10
4 Sample Number 4
x 10

Fig. 6. Modeled and faulty output currents on phase A Fig. 9. EWMA statistic performance during multiple faults in Cell1

IV. CONCLUSIONS
In view of an optimal utilization of the generated electrical
2 Residual power, this paper presented an effective Exponentially Weighted
Moving Average (EWMA) based fault detection technique for a
grid-connected PV system. The PV system consists of a 3-phase
1
3-cell CHB MLI, where each cell is fed by a qZS network. A
Residual

EWMA chart is applied to the injected grid currents to detect

0 small and moderate open/short circuit faults in the different
cells. The proposed detection strategy showed high performance
in detecting faults compared to the conventional Generalized
-1 Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) univariate statistic.

-2
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 This work was made possible by NPRP-EP Grant no. X-033-
Sample Number 4
x 10 2-007 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of
Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the
Fig. 7. Residual between the modeled and faulty current responsibility of the authors.

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