Fault Diagnosis for Photovoltaic Systems: A Validated Industrial SCADA Framework

Standard monitoring for photovoltaic (PV) systems, often based on IEC 61724-1, the standard published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) titled “Photovoltaic system performance—Part 1: Monitoring”, is frequently slow to detect critical operational anomalies, particularly those related to energy self-consumption where conventional generation-centric metrics may appear normal. This work presents a validated industrial SCADA (i.e., Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) framework designed for the accelerated fault diagnosis of such systems. The proposed methodology leverages high-resolution, real-time visualization of specific energy-flow indicators, including the Self-Consumption Ratio (SCR) and Self-Sufficiency Ratio (SSR), to provide immediate operational intelligence. The novelty of this approach lies not in the individual parameters themselves, but in their synergistic integration into a validated, high-speed SCADA system design and real-time diagnostic methodology. The framework’s diagnostic superiority was validated on two distinct, real-world case studies in Jaén, Spain (a 2.97 kW residential and a 58.5 kW commercial system), with primary research results confirming: (1) a simulated comparative benchmarking study demonstrated a significant reduction in Mean-Time-to-Detection (MTTD), achieving a consistent diagnostic speed improvement of over 80% for critical anomalies, and (2) a 10,000 h probabilistic simulation confirmed the statistical robustness of the proposed indicators across a wide range of operating conditions. By demonstrating the practical implementation of these principles within a scalable industrial platform, this work provides a validated and reproducible technical methodology that enhances PV system diagnostics, translating performance metrics into a tangible, high-speed tool for improving operational reliability.