62 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO.
1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
Arc Flash Calculations for a 1.3-MW
Photovoltaic System
Daniel R. Doan, Fellow, IEEE, and Richard M. Derer, Member, IEEE
Abstract—When planning for the installation of a 1.3-MW
photovoltaic (PV) system and its integration into an existing fa-
cility’s electrical system, an arc flash study was performed to
determine the best protective device settings to minimize the arc
flash energy in the PV system and to determine the effect of the
additional short-circuit current on arc flash calculations for the
existing system. The existing system has distribution at 13.8 kV
and two 10-MVA transformers to a 2.4-kV feeder system. The PV
system adds the hazard of 500-Vdc subarray collection wiring and
terminations. The dc arc flash exposure of PV systems, including
those in the inverter enclosures, can be complicated, and this paper
outlines the basic data collected for the study, the steps taken to
complete the calculations, the methodology used, the results, and
the team’s learnings.
Index Terms—Arc flash hazard, dc systems, inverters, photo-
voltaics (PVs).
I. I NTRODUCTION
D C ARC FLASH exposure is a known hazard, but has not
been researched thoroughly. Recent papers on the subject
have provided theoretical methods that can be applied to esti-
mate the expected maximum arc flash energy from a dc system
to workers during an arcing fault incident. [1], [2] Further
research is planned by the IEEE/NFPA Arc Flash Collaboration
Research Project [3], but the timing of publication of results is
not known. Additional references on arc flash hazards can be
found by searching at the IEEE Xplore website [4]. It is the
responsibility of the project engineering team to perform the
best possible calculation for estimating the arc flash energy, and
good engineering judgment is definitely required.
The exposure to arc flash hazards in photovoltaic (PV) in-
stallations, such as any dc system, can be due to unforeseen
problems with the equipment, even if equipment is properly
installed and maintained. For example, an internal spring or
other part of a switch can break during operation and fall back
to create a short circuit across the exposed bus. The panels and
collector boxes for PV systems are exposed to extreme condi-
tions, e.g., rain, wind, high and low temperatures, and a leak, or
other damage, can bring water into contact with insulators and
Manuscript received February 20, 2014; accepted April 16, 2014. Date
of publication August 14, 2014; date of current version January 16, 2015.
Paper 2014-ESafC-0082, presented at the 2014 IEEE IAS Electrical Safety
Workshop, San Diego, CA, USA, February 4–7, and approved for publication
in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Electrical
Safety Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
D. R. Doan is with DuPont Engineering, Wilmington, DE 19805 USA
(e-mail: doan@ieee.org).
R. M. Derer is with DuPont Electronics and Communications, Parlin, NJ
08859 USA (e-mail: richard.m.derer-1@dupont.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2014.2347236
0093-9994 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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cause a fault. Since this equipment is usually installed outdoors,
varmint or insect entrance can also be an issue.
Workers who operate and maintain these systems must un-
derstand the arc flash hazards of the equipment and should be
given guidance on the proper personal protective equipment
(PPE) to wear that will protect them during an arc flash incident.
A few of the tasks that the workers might perform are the
following:
• switching to put the system in a safe condition;
• lockouts;
• troubleshooting (including voltage and current checks).
II. P ROJECT BASIC DATA
The existing plant system has distribution voltages of
13.8 kV and 2.4 kV. See Fig. 1, for a simplified one-line
diagram of the portion of the site system that connects to the
PV system. The 480-V PV system is connected into 2.4-kV site
feeders #7 and #8 through a 1500-kVA transformer.
The 1.3-MW PV system consists of 8330 solar panel mod-
ules, feeding into a varied system of combiners, recombin-
ers, and inverters. Two different module designs (different
manufacturers) were used in the system, with parameters as
shown in Table I. Voc is the open-circuit voltage of the module
under standard test conditions (STC), i.e., usually 1000-W/m2
sunlight irradiance and 25 ◦ C cell temperature. Isc is the short-
circuit current for the module at STC. Vmpp and Impp are
the voltage and current of the cell at the point of maximum
power. Most manufacturers give another set of parameters for
the modules, based on a nominal operating cell temperature
(NOCT), which is a higher cell temperature based on a different
set of conditions (such as 800 W/m2 , ambient temperature of
20 ◦ C, and wind speed of 1 m/s). The NOCT values for voltage
and current are usually lower than the STC values.
The modules are connected in series into strings, as described
in Table II.
The strings are brought together in combiner boxes, with
23–52 strings per combiner. In arrays A, B, C, and D, the
outputs of three combiner boxes are brought together into each
recombiner box. The recombiner boxes (and combiner boxes
in array E) are connected to the input terminals of the inverter
cabinets via disconnect switches. Arrays A and B connect to the
500-kW inverter “AB”; arrays C and D to the 500-kW inverter
“CD”; and array E to the 250-kW inverter “E”. See Fig. 2, for a
simplified diagram of one of these systems.
Physically, each solar panel module is approximately 1 m2 ;
hence, over 8000 modules take up a lot of space. The center of a
site, which was recently cleared of older process buildings, was
DOAN AND DERER: ARC FLASH CALCULATIONS FOR A 1.3-MW PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 63

Fig. 1. One-line diagram of portion of the system.

TABLE I The combiner boxes, recombiner boxes, dc disconnect
PV M ODULES
switches, and inverters are all installed outdoors, with raintight
construction. See Figs. 5 and 6, for a view of these system parts.
Several concerns were identified when reviewing the equip-
ment for the study. First, the ac and dc wiring into the inverters
is connected in a single section of the enclosure. If there is an
arc flash incident on the dc bus, it would be possible for the
TABLE II
PV M ODULE S TRINGS arcing products to initiate an arcing fault on the ac circuit as
well. This creates a potential for a higher arc flash energy with
both sources contributing.
Second, one of the fuse types installed in the system, i.e., a
400-A fuse provided for fast-acting PV service, did not have
a time–current curve. From discussions with the fuse supplier,
we learned that the 400-A version of this fuse had not yet been
utilized for the installation. Fig. 3 is a view showing a small tested for average melt and/or total clearing time.
portion of the system. A plan view of the system, with each Third, we realized from the solar module technical data that
color dot representing a module, is shown in Fig. 4. the short-circuit current of the modules was not significantly

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64 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
Fig. 2. Combiner and recombiner boxes to inverters.
Fig. 3. View of portion of PV system.
higher than the full output current. This could mean that the
previously used “maximum power” calculation for dc arc flash
[2] might not be valid, since that method depends on a linear
source impedance.
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III. C ALCULATIONS
A. AC Arc Flash Calculations
The ac portion of the system was modeled, and the arc
flash energy calculations were performed, using the IEEE 1584
methodology [5]. The incident energy results are shown in
Table III. Isc is the bolted fault short-circuit current at that point
in the system, and IE is the calculated incident energy. These
values are only the ac portion of the arc flash energy that is
available at the equipment.
B. DC Arc Flash Calculations
The dc portion of the system is more difficult to model and
is complicated by the concerns previously mentioned. First,
consider the current flows during a fault in a combiner box. The
module strings connected directly into the combiner box are
each individually fused, but the fuse size is not small enough
to open during a short-circuit condition. With the maximum
current at 1.2 A and short-circuit current at 1.43 A, there is
not enough separation for a fuse to open. Hence, the current
DOAN AND DERER: ARC FLASH CALCULATIONS FOR A 1.3-MW PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 65

Fig. 4. Plot plan of PV system installation.

Fig. 5. Combiner and recombiner boxes. Fig. 6. Inverter with dc disconnect switches on the right.

[2], as shown in
from the direct-connect modules will flow for the maximum
duration of the arc. The other modules, which are connected to
IEmax power = 0.239 ∗ (Vsys /2)2 /Rsys ∗ Tarc /(4 ∗ 3.14 ∗ R2 )
the inverter input bus through other combiner and recombiner
(1)
boxes, will also provide current to the fault. This current will
where
flow to the faulted combiner box through its protective device
at the recombiner box. See Fig. 7, where the indicated fuse IEmax power estimated incident energy at the maximum
protects the combiner box from the majority of the dc system power point (in calories per square centimeter);
short-circuit current. The fuses in those positions are special Vsys system voltage (in volts);
types for PV service, which are sized at 75, 100, 125, or 400 A, Rsys system resistance (in ohms);
depending on the location in the system. Tarc arcing time (in seconds);
The equation given for dc arc flash incident energy at the R worker’s distance from the arc (in
maximum power point in other dc systems was previously given centimeters).

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66 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
TABLE III
AC S YSTEM A RC F LASH E STIMATE
Fig. 7. DC current flow to the combiner box during a fault.
However, the values for the maximum power point for cur-
rent and voltage in PV systems is not the same as other dc
systems. From the manufacturer’s data, the maximum power
available from the PV cells is determined through testing and is
published in a set of curves, at select levels of irradiance. See
Fig. 8, which shows a typical set of current and power curves
for a PV module.
Impp (current at maximum power point) for the modules
in arrays A–D is 1.20 A, and the Vmpp (voltage at maximum
power point) is 121 V. For array E, the module Impp and Vmpp
are 7.97 A and 29.5 V, respectively. The string voltage for
arrays A–D can be determined from the module voltage of
121 V, with three modules in series, for a total voltage of
363 V. The string voltage for array E is the module voltage
of 29.5 V, with 13 modules in series, for a total voltage of
384 V. To determine the current into each box, Impp can be
multiplied by the number of strings in parallel that are wired
to each combiner or recombiner. These values set up the input
values to a dc arc flash calculation, as shown in Table IV, for
the combiner boxes in the system.
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Fig. 8. Current and power output of typical PV module.
TABLE IV
DC S YSTEM VALUES FOR C OMBINER B OXES
These values of Vmpp and Impp can be used to estimate
the maximum incident energy from a PV system. The rec-
ommended equation for maximum incident energy from a PV
system is given by
IEpv = 0.239 ∗ (Vmpp ∗ Impp ∗ Tarc )/(4 ∗ 3.14 ∗ R2 ) (2)
where
IEpv estimated incident energy at the PV maximum power
point (in calories per square centimeter);
Vmpp voltage of the cell maximum power point (in volts);
Impp current of the cell maximum power point (in
amperes);
Tarc arcing time (in seconds);
R worker’s distance from the arc (in centimeters).
Simplifying this equation yields
IEpv = 0.02 ∗ (Vmpp ∗ Impp ∗ Tarc )/(R2 ). (3)
Using this equation for the combiner boxes, the results
are shown in Table V. IE values are in calories per square
centimeter. Working distance R was set to an arm’s length of
45.7 cm (18 in). For the portion of the current coming directly
from the modules, the fuses will not open at the maximum
power point, which is very close to the operating point. Hence,
the duration for that portion of the calculation was set to 2 s,
which is typically used as a maximum for arc flash calculations.
The portion of current coming from the rest of the system
(from the recombiner box) is protected by the fuse listed under
“Fuse Size” in Table V, and the fuse curve was checked for the
maximum clearing time.
DOAN AND DERER: ARC FLASH CALCULATIONS FOR A 1.3-MW PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM
TABLE V
DC A RC F LASH E STIMATE FOR C OMBINER B OXES
Fig. 9. DC current flow to the recombiner box during a fault.
The total dc arc flash energy would be the sum of the two
values, as shown in the rightmost column. The combiner boxes
for array “E” were estimated to have an arc flash energy that
requires arc flash PPE.
A similar arcing current situation occurs at the recombiner
boxes, as shown in Fig. 9. These are only used in arrays A–D.
Using (3) for the recombiner boxes, the results are shown in
Table VI. Again, the fusing in individual circuits from combiner
boxes is not intended to open quickly to protect equipment or
personnel from arc flash hazards.
The dc arc flash calculation for the inverter input bus can
be calculated directly from the total Impp of each array, using
(3). Again, the fuse protection is not sized to protect against
any short-circuit current, as the expected full load current,
maximum power current, and short-circuit current are all very
similar values; hence, the 2-s duration is used. Table VII
provides the results of this calculation.
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67
C. Combining the DC and AC Calculations
It seemed possible that, if there is an incident with an arc flash
on the dc bus of an inverter, the arcing products could initiate an
arcing fault on any nearby ac circuits as well. Hence, it seemed
prudent to add the dc and ac arc flash energy values together, as
both systems would be sources, providing energy during an arc
flash incident. In this equipment, the inverter section has both ac
and dc buses in the same section of the enclosure. See Fig. 10.
Combining the values in Tables III and VII, the final estimated
arc flash energy values for the inverters were determined to be
11.0 cal/cm2 for inverter AB, 10.7 cal/cm2 for inverter CD, and
5.3 cal/cm2 for inverter E.
D. Discussion Items
It was initially thought that a voltage drop in wiring from the
modules to combiner and recombiner boxes, and wiring to the
inverter, would reduce the arc flash energy. However, this did
not happen because the wiring to install each string was large
compared to the short-circuit current. Calculations showed that
the voltage drop has a negligible effect since each module string
(1.43-A short-circuit current) is wired with a #12 American
wire gauge conductor. This makes sense, as PV systems are
installed for high efficiency, and resistance in the wiring, and
hence voltage drop, would be wasting energy.
The biggest discussion item was where on the curve would
the PV system operate during a fault. We could find no research
into this and hence could not make any definitive statements.
We believe that the PV systems would have a reduced voltage
during a short-circuit fault, but the current would stay near the
maximum power and short-circuit values. We decided to use
the maximum power point as the worst case arcing energy. In
most cases, we would expect some lower value of energy to
be released during a PV system fault. Those performing an arc
flash hazard analysis of other PV systems may be able to defend
the use of a different point on the PV module curve.
IV. L EARNINGS
We had several learnings while doing this paper. First, we
found that the short-circuit current of these PV cells is not
much higher than their typical load point. From this, we found
that many of the typical design fuses installed in these systems
do not open quickly under short-circuit conditions. Some fuses
did open, such as the recombiner box fuses opening during a
combiner box fault.
We learned that inverter layout design could be improved by
separating the dc and ac buses in the inverter. In the case of this
68 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
TABLE VI
DC A RC F LASH E STIMATE FOR R ECOMBINER B OXES
TABLE VII
DC A RC F LASH VALUES FOR I NVERTER B USES
Fig. 10. DC and AC buses in the same inverter cabinet.
system, the ac arc flash energy was low; hence, there was not
much additional energy.
Finally, we found a higher value for arc flash energy than
we initially expected. With the modules’ short-circuit current
only slightly higher than the full-load current, it is difficult
to reduce the arc flash energy with normal protective devices.
Protection technologies are beginning to be available that are
specifically designed for PV systems, and those technologies
should be carefully reviewed to determine if they can be applied
in a specific system design. If maintenance has to be done
on a PV system, it would be best to open disconnects at the
module and/or combiner box level, before working around the
recombiners or inverter enclosures.
This grid-connected system did not include any energy stor-
age system such as batteries. Battery systems are a known
source of dc arc flash and give a higher short-circuit current
during fault situations. PV systems that include batteries would
be a special case that should be carefully studied to determine a
worst case arc flash incident energy estimate.
V. C ONCLUSION
Arc flash energy in a PV system is a hazard, and there are
no published guidelines for estimating the arc flash energy for
these systems. The user must understand the hazard and put in
place PPE and procedures to keep workers safe from shock and
arc flash hazards.
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The developed theoretical equation can be used as a con-
servative (worst case) approach that uses published maximum
power point voltage and current values for manufactured PV
modules.
Further research into this hazard is needed, to find a more ac-
curate and reasonable methodology for calculating an estimate
of the arc flash energy for these systems. Testing of PV modules
during fault conditions could help determine a more reasonable
point on the output curve to use for these calculations.
R EFERENCES
[1] R. F. Ammerman, T. Gammon, P. K. Sen, and J. P. Nelson, “DC-arc models
and incident-energy calculations,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 5,
pp. 1810–1819, Sep./Oct. 2010.
[2] D. R. Doan, “Arc flash calculations for exposures to DC systems,” IEEE
Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 2299–2302, Nov./Dec. 2010.
[3] IEEE/NFPA Arc Flash Research Project. [Online]. Available: https://
standards.ieee.org/about/arcflash/
[4] IEEE Xplore Website. [Online]. Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
Xplore/dynhome.jsp
[5] Guide for Performing Arc Flash Hazard Calculations, IEEE 1584-2002,
2002.
Daniel R. Doan (S’80–M’81–SM’00–F’11) re-
ceived the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
He is a Principal Consultant with DuPont Engi-
neering, Wilmington, DE, USA. He has coauthored
IEEE papers at the Industry Applications Society
(IAS) Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee
(PCIC) and Pulp and Paper Conferences on subjects
ranging from electrical safety to electrical system
reliability and operations. He has coauthored PCIC
Tutorials on Electrical System Reliability and Arc Flash Hazard Analysis, and
he has participated in many IAS Electrical Safety Workshops as an author and
presenter.
Mr. Doan is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Pennsylvania.
Richard M. Derer (M’13) studied electrical engi-
neering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
He is a Facilities and Electrical Engineer with
DuPont Electronics and Communications, Parlin,
NJ, USA.
Mr. Derer has been a recipient of two Corporate
Engineering Excellence Awards, and he has been a
Finalist for two others.