Publications Details

Identifying the Electrical Signature of Snow in Photovoltaic Inverter Data

Cooper, Emma C.; Braid, Jennifer L.; Burnham, Laurie

Snow is a significant challenge for PV plants at northern latitudes, and snow-related power losses can exceed 30 % of annual production. Accurate loss estimates are needed for resource planning and to validate mitigation strategies, but this requires accurate snow detection at the inverter level. In this study, we propose and validate a framework for detecting snow in time-series inverter data. We identify four distinct snow-related power loss modes based on the inverter's operating points and electrical properties of the inverter and PV arrays. We validate these modes and identify their associated physical snow conditions using site images. Finally we examine relative frequencies of the snow power loss modes and their contributions to total power loss.