Fault Signatures and Dynamic Partial Shading Effects in Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaic Systems

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Qais, Mohammed and Bayram, I Safak and Pena Alzola, Rafael and Galloway, Stuart (2026) Fault Signatures and Dynamic Partial Shading Effects in Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaic Systems. In: 52nd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2026), 2026-10-18 - 2026-10-21. (In Press)

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Abstract

Vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) systems op- erate under rapidly changing irradiance and shading conditions caused by driving routes, parking locations, and surrounding urban environments. Dynamic partial shading is therefore a nor- mal operating condition rather than a fault. However, permanent partial shading and defect-related degradation can produce sim- ilar reductions in power output and must be distinguished from normal VIPV operating variability. This paper investigates the effects of representative defects and dynamic partial shading on the electrical characteristics of a VIPV system using PSCAD sim- ulations. A 1.2 kW PV array is modelled to evaluate the impacts of irradiance variation, temperature variation, permanent partial shading, reduced shunt resistance, increased series resistance, and line-to-line faults. The results show that different defects produce distinct changes in the current-voltage and power- voltage characteristics, which can support fault signature analysis in VIPV systems. The transient response of a perturb and observe maximum power point tracking controller is also analysed under dynamic irradiance and shading conditions. While the controller tracks the maximum power point under uniform irradiance changes, it can converge to a local power peak during dynamic partial shading. These findings highlight the importance of fault signature characterisation and improved maximum power point tracking methods for urban VIPV applications.

ORCID iDs

Qais, Mohammed, Bayram, I Safak ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8130-5583, Pena Alzola, Rafael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2451-6779 and Galloway, Stuart ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1978-993X;
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