• • • TEST & MEASUREMENT • • •
HOW TECH IS TURNING SOLAR TECHNICIANS INTO SUCCESSFUL GROUND FAULT HUNTERS
Utility-scale solar installations have the potential to revolutionise the energy industry, delivering cheaper and greener electricity. However, the industry is still faced with bumps in the road By Martijn Gerlag, Field Application Engineer at Fluke Corporation
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ommon, yet preventable, ground faults in solar arrays are costing the industry dearly, threatening its long-term sustainability and undermining its growth potential. It is time for the solar industry to tackle these ground faults head-on with a new, proactive maintenance strategy. Instead of the typical set-and-forget attitude to maintaining solar systems, operators would benefit from a more proactive approach, regularly testing key systems to ensure issues can be identified and rectified before they become a problem.
The importance of regular testing One of the biggest challenges facing the industry is labour shortages. With maintenance teams tackling chronic staff shortages, businesses are experiencing greater periods of downtime and subsequently greater losses. However, organisations don’t necessarily need huge maintenance crews to effectively maintain a solar farm. Lean crews can be highly effective, as long as they have the right approach and the right tools. Approaching solar maintenance like a hunter means equipping yourself with technology that can test and trace ground faults and prevent arc fault fires, all from a safe distance.
The result, of course, is greater uptime and productivity for solar installation, without the cost and danger involved in older approaches to maintenance. Tracking down ground faults and repairing them must, therefore, be one of the top priorities for solar fault hunters. And fortunately, new tools make that easy.
Identifying elusive ground faults To continue the hunting analogy, ground faults are tough prey to track down; they easily camouflage themselves among the many strings in an array. This is why regular testing and measurement is essential to ensure faults are identified and mitigated as soon as possible.
Modern inverters feature built-in ground fault detection and interruption devices that shut down the inverter immediately upon detecting a ground fault. This is a crucial safety measure that protects people and equipment from electrical hazards and fires. However, the inverter’s ground fault detection system isn’t designed to pinpoint the exact location of the fault. Traditionally, technicians have used a laborious ‘brute force’ approach to pinpoint ground faults, which requires technicians to spend hours measuring voltage levels and testing insulation resistance, string by string, to isolate the string with the ground fault. Faced with this prospect, many technicians decide to simply take the whole string offline. However, isolating the string means that that section of the array does not generate electricity. It can lead to significant revenue drops, and (depending on your service agreement) fines for failing to meet uptime guarantees. Uncorrected ground faults also pose safety hazards. Even if you take a string offline, a secondary ground fault nearby can create a circular current that runs through the old faulty string, creating electrical hazards and, in many cases, fires.
28 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • OCTOBER 2025 Equipping for the future
of solar maintenance Thanks to advances in technology, solar technicians are now able to quickly and safely hunt down electrical faults in a utility-scale solar array. The newest tools also require less training and experience to operate, which is a huge benefit for expertise-constrained teams. As we’ve seen, inverters shut down as soon as a ground fault is detected. Technicians can then set up a transmitter to inject a signal into the system. Using a receiver or a signal tracing clamp, the technicians trace the signal’s path along the circuit and identify the exact spot where the signal leaks to the ground.
The best of the new tools come with mapping functions, so technicians can identify and map string and wire layout. Built-in analytic functions also make the tools more intuitive to use and easier to learn than previous testing techniques, allowing new employees to deploy them successfully after a brief training period. The results are clear. Innovative technology is enabling a new, proactive approach to maintaining utility-scale solar arrays. Taking on a hunter’s stance allows technicians to get ahead of potentially dangerous ground faults before they cause damage. Proactively locating and repairing ground faults means increased uptime and productivity, with a lower operational cost. It’s a win for solar fault hunters and for everyone using the energy they produce.
https://www.fluke.com/en-gb
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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