Track 2 Session 6

9:10 to 10:10 a.m. Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Photovoltaic System Reliability & Maintainability Data Collection and Analysis Using a FRACAS Tool

This presentation describes a comprehensive approach to developing reliability and availability estimates for a photovoltaic system. Failure and repair data spanning up to seven years from an operating photovoltaic facility were collected using a FRACAS software tool. Field failures and repairs were documented using incident reports directly in a database that can be queried later to automatically organize the data into a suite of complementary software tools for life data analysis, reliability growth analysis and failure modes and effects analysis. Next, component failure distributions and off time distributions (corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, grid disturbances) are linked to a system simulation tool for predicting reliability and availability and for facilitating sensitivity analyses.

Key Words: System Reliability and Availability Simulation, Field Data Collection, FRACAS, Life Data Analysis, Reliability Growth Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Sensitivity Analysis

Michael Mundt

Sandia National Laboratories

Albuquerque, New Mexico