Electrical Safety and Risk Prevention

Riesgos

• Operators, business owners, and technicians should be aware of safety regulations, proper tools and equipment, and personal and collective safety gear.

General Information

• Work involves different guilds, and poor management by one affects the others.
• Labor risk prevention is based on Norma UNE 81900.
• All companies and their personnel employ safe work methods.

5 Golden Rules

• Always comply with the five golden rules for working without tension.
• These rules include disconnecting, preventing possible feedback, verifying the absence of tension, grounding and short-circuiting, and protecting against live elements while signaling the area.

Storm Protection

• Protection levels include external and internal components.
• External protection objectives: avoid direct impact and channel current to the ground safely.
• Internal protection seeks elimination or reduction of damage-causing overvoltages.

Safety Sign Classification

• Warning signs alert to danger.
• Prohibition signs forbid behaviors likely to cause danger.
• Obligation signs demand specific conduct.
• Information signs provide guidance on how to proceed or act.

Response to an Accident

• Apply PAS (Protect, Warn, and Help) in the event of an accident.
• Recognize the vital signs of the injured.
  • Consciousness
  • Breathing
  • Pulse

Strategic Planning

• Resources are readily available when needed including equipment, lifting devices, manipulation tools and transport.
• Materials and supplies are on-site when assembly is about to commence.
• Objectives should be achieved with established planning.
• There is control of the materials received, correctly marked and constantly checked
• Human groups should suit each stage of the assembly

Assembly Planning

• General data includes characteristics and type.
• A list of needs includes materials, tools, machines, and human resources.
• It is important to know when and how long these will be needed.

Order Schedule

• The order schedule is to recognize when the order will be placed
• Delivery deadlines are also recognized

Reception Schedule

• Linked to calendar of orders.
• The reception schedule says when order need to arrive at the installation

Planning

• Execution tasks take place coherently and organized.
• Gantt or PERT diagrams show start and end.
• Key performance indications need control.
• Control parameters evaluate progress and fulfilments.

Contingency Plan

• Actions should take place in unforeseen situations, such as changing providers or the execution order

Retake

• Phases: collect and check information, verify coordinates, survey the land, and prepare new documents.

Climatic Conditions

• When assembling roofs, cluster and block with ballasts to prevent movement down the slope due to thermal expansion.
• A flexible intermediate surface should be added between the roof; supporting structure and ballasts.

Component Labeling

• Caution for risk of electric discharge

Housing Impermeability

• Follow IP ratings based on environment and setting.

Housing Doors and Covers

• Doors and box lids shall not react with grease or dirt
• Doors and box lids shall block in order to avoid d. fagas

Connection Quality

• Properly corrugated crimps and sealed to avoid

Temperature Control

• Refrigerants are used with electronic components.

Connectors

• Use the same model and manufacturer.
• Differents models connectors potentially encage however connections internal may produce arcs burning connections

What is Maintenance Management?

• Coordinated activities to preserve and restore equipment in order to guarantee reliability and performances of the plant
• Activities Include
  • Prolong the useful life
  • Reduce downtime
  • Cost management

Problems

• There's a lack of defined business processes.
• Support systems for management are insufficient.
• Preventative maintenance plans have several improvement possibilities.

More Potential Problems

• There's a low level of predictive maintenance.
• Available information is not properly used.
• Guarantee claims and management are tough.

More Problems from a different Angle

• there is currently a inventory stock, yet optimum volume is still to be defined
• fast technological obsolescence are accelerating equipment replacement times

Types of Maintenance:

• There are three types of maintenance:
  • Preventative
  • Predictive
  • Corrective.

Preventative Maintenance

• Aims to reduce the chances of equipment failing or limit the impact of those failures.
• The main goal is to stop problems from happening.
• Inspections are set up according to how much the gear is used or certain time frames.
• Estimates the chances of something breaking down.
• Some of the maintenance tasks for solar panel systems include:
  • Washing off the modules
  • Tightening the connections on panels and equipment.
  • Testing the safety systems
  • Replacing air filters in the equipment.

Predictive Maintenance

• Utilizes real-time information to predict when a failure might occur before it happens and takes appropriate action.

Key aspects of Predictive Maintenance

• This maintenance relies on tracking the equipment's physical stats, such as power levels, temperature, moisture, and how well it's being greased.
• Procedures can prevent further damage and allow devices to function correctly if these readings pass predetermined limits.
• It resembles preventative care; however, action is performed in the moment.
• Historic monitoring "records" the installation, data on production and climate
• Inverters, module performances, and temperatures can have some corrective actions.
• While typically done with photovoltaic plants, predictive maintenance optimizes overall maintenance.

Corrective Maintenance

• Carried out after a failure occurs to restore a device to its required performance state.
• Drawbacks:
  • Unplanned outages damage severe to the devices and high expenses.
• This was the common maintenance approach before the 1950s.
• Activities covered by proper maintenance:
  • Module replacement.
  • Inverter replacements/repairs.
  • Transformer replacement/repair.
  • repair or rupture in wiring

Risk of Performance Loss

• There are challenges designing running and maintaining solar PV systems
• These are due to uncertainty, differences in how system parts work together, and environmental variables.
• Components vary in their level of weakness.
• How reliable they are throughout their lives depends on factors like operating temp, rate of power loss and its functional setting
• More stress of components decreases efficiency and longevity
• Integrating energy production to distribution points increases tension

Defining Faults: PV Modules

• Has 3 fault origins, external, internal and station
• Is less likely to suffer faults
• requires transport and manipulation and installation handling due to damage

External Faults

• They can be found due to:
  • Vibration
  • Impacts or defective parts
  • External conditions and vandalism

Internal Falls

• They can arise internally from various reasons
  • A decreased power source that requires specific testing equipment
  • High Repair costs
  • Drops from production values

Fault Characteristics: Inverters

• It is critical and costs more to repair/substitute.
• There are sensors and gauges for monitoring activities with alarm trigger.
• It is easier to troubleshoot faults (module or network) by checking its inverters.

Types of External Faults

• Poor Installation
• Under-sized strings
• Drained network

Types of Internal Faults

• These occur in operation like: isolation, landlines or distribution/
• Are a risk from the start, and stop related to relay commutation.
• There are communication cuts which affect production.

Characterizing Faults - Other

• Issues with transformers and grid downturns
• Prolonged partial shadows and bad tracking settings

Thermography

• Thermography is a safe method for detecting failures.
• Failures in the functioning of photovoltaic systems from sunlight of over 600 W/m² can be diagnosed with a thermographic camera, based on the variations of properties.
  • Derivation deficiencies
  • Ground connections and cells in short circuits
  • Damp entry, dirt
  • Cracking between cells & modules
  • Broken or unconnected module parts
  • Connecting modules with various power
  • Defect cables and ground wires
  • Symptoms of degradation and fatigue