Autors: Hinova, I. S., Baeva, S. K., Vitanova M.K. Title: Hierarchical Sensitivity Analysis of PV Converter Operating Profiles Under Climatic and Grid Uncertainty Keywords: Morris screening, operating profile, power quality, PV converter, quantitative uncertainty assessment, sensitivity analysis, Sobol/Saltelli indices, thermal headroomAbstract: Photovoltaic converters operate under varying climatic conditions and non-ideal grid regimes, but factor importance is often assessed either through isolated local metrics or through pooled operating data that hide regime shifts and interaction effects. This study develops a hierarchical framework for sensitivity analysis of operating profiles of grid-connected PV converters under climatic and grid uncertainty. A compact operating-profile formulation is introduced that relates solar radiation, cell and ambient temperature, grid voltage, load, and selected design/control parameters to active power, efficiency, power factor, harmonic distortion, DC bus ripple, clipping behavior, and thermal headroom. The proposed workflow combines local normalized sensitivities for fast ranking around nominal conditions, Morris screening for factor reduction, and Sobol/Saltelli variance-based indices for global prioritization under uncertainty. The framework is demonstrated on a 100 kW synthetic reduced-order benchmark representing a three-phase two-level grid-connected PV inverter with an LCL filter. To clarify the scope of validity, the reduced-order model is cross-checked against switching-level simulations for representative nominal, clipping-prone, high-temperature and grid-stress operating windows. The results show that factor importance is not universal, but depends on the selected KPI, operating regime and uncertainty scenario. In the considered benchmark, grid voltage, cell temperature and equivalent thermal resistance are the dominant total-effect contributors, while the strongest second-order contribution appears between grid voltage and filter inductance under grid-stress conditions. The proposed framework is therefore intended as a reproducible, regime-aware sensitivity workflow rather than as a universal ranking of PV converter parameters. References - Teodorescu R. Liserre M. Rodríguez P. Grid Converters for Photovoltaic and Wind Power Systems Wiley Chichester, UK 2011 10.1002/9780470667057
- Villalva M.G. Gazoli J.R. Ruppert Filho E. Comprehensive approach to modeling and simulation of photovoltaic arrays IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 2009 24 1198 1208 10.1109/TPEL.2009.2013862
- De Soto W. Klein S.A. Beckman W.A. Improvement and validation of a model for photovoltaic array performance Sol. Energy 2006 80 78 88 10.1016/j.solener.2005.06.010
- Skoplaki E. Palyvos J.A. On the temperature dependence of photovoltaic module electrical performance: A review of efficiency/power correlations Sol. Energy 2009 83 614 624 10.1016/j.solener.2008.10.008
- Liserre M. Blaabjerg F. Hansen S. Design and control of an LCL-filter-based three-phase active rectifier IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 2005 41 1281 1291 10.1109/TIA.2005.853373
- Morris M.D. Factorial sampling plans for preliminary computational experiments Technometrics 1991 33 161 174 10.1080/00401706.1991.10484804
- Campolongo F. Cariboni J. Saltelli A. An effective screening design for sensitivity analysis of large models Environ. Model. Softw. 2007 22 1509 1518 10.1016/j.envsoft.2006.10.004
- Sobol I.M. Global sensitivity indices for nonlinear mathematical models and their Monte Carlo estimates Math. Comput. Simul. 2001 55 271 280 10.1016/S0378-4754(00)00270-6
- Saltelli A. Annoni P. Azzini I. Campolongo F. Ratto M. Tarantola S. Variance-based sensitivity analysis of model output: Design and estimator for the total sensitivity index Comput. Phys. Commun. 2010 181 259 270 10.1016/j.cpc.2009.09.018
- Saltelli A. Ratto M. Andres T. Campolongo F. Cariboni J. Gatelli D. Saisana M. Tarantola S. Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer Wiley Chichester, UK 2008 10.1002/9780470725184
- Pianosi F. Beven K. Freer J. Hall J.W. Rougier J. Stephenson D.B. Wagener T. Sensitivity analysis of environmental models: A systematic review with practical workflow Environ. Model. Softw. 2016 79 214 232 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.02.008
- IEEE Std 519-2022 IEEE Standard for Harmonic Control in Electric Power Systems IEEE New York, NY, USA 2022 10.1109/IEEESTD.2022.9848440
- IEC 61724-1:2021 Photovoltaic System Performance—Part 1: Monitoring International Electrotechnical Commission Geneva, Switzerland 2021
- Herman J. Usher W. SALib: An open-source Python library for sensitivity analysis J. Open Source Softw. 2017 2 97 10.21105/joss.00097
- Morey M. Gupta N. Garg M.M. Kumar A. A comprehensive review of grid-connected solar photovoltaic system: Architecture, control, and ancillary services Renew. Energy Focus 2023 45 307 330 10.1016/j.ref.2023.04.009
- Abdulla H. Sleptchenko A. Nayfeh A. Photovoltaic systems operation and maintenance: A review and future directions Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2024 195 114342 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114342
- Bamisile O. Acen C. Cai D. Huang Q. Staffell I. The environmental factors affecting solar photovoltaic output Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2025 208 115073 10.1016/j.rser.2024.115073
- Hossain M.K. Chowdhury P. Nowshin I. Islam M.R. Al-Hysam A. Farrok O. Grid-connected inverter for photovoltaic energy harvesting: Advances in topologies and control techniques Energy Convers. Manag. X 2026 29 101422 10.1016/j.ecmx.2025.101422
- Saedabad Z.E. Vahidi B. Jalilian M.J. Harmonic stability of weak grid-connected solar power plant Electr. Power Syst. Res. 2024 233 110471 10.1016/j.epsr.2024.110471
- Brito E.M.S. Cupertino A.F. Pereira H.A. Mendes V.F. Reliability-based trade-off analysis of reactive power capability in PV inverters under different sizing ratio Int. J. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 2022 136 107677 10.1016/j.ijepes.2021.107677
- Chai Q. Zhang C. Dong Z.Y. Xu Y. Operational reliability assessment of photovoltaic inverters considering voltage/VAR control function Electr. Power Syst. Res. 2021 190 106706 10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106706
- Ryu T. Choi U.-M. Vernica I. Blaabjerg F. Effect of thermal loading definitions on the mission profile-based reliability evaluation of power devices in PV inverters Microelectron. Reliab. 2022 138 114650 10.1016/j.microrel.2022.114650
- Song Q. Ma M. Guo W. Jiang T. Pan N. Health state diagnosis of air duct for photovoltaic inverter based on PSO-SVM classifier Microelectron. Reliab. 2023 150 115084 10.1016/j.microrel.2023.115084
- Zhang F. Wang X. Wang W. Zhang J. Du R. Li B. Liu W. Uncertainty analysis of photovoltaic cells to determine probability of functional failure Appl. Energy 2023 332 120495 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120495
- Zhang F. Han C. Wu M. Hou X. Wang X. Li B. Global sensitivity analysis of photovoltaic cell parameters based on credibility variance Energy Rep. 2022 8 7582 7588 10.1016/j.egyr.2022.05.280
- Micheli L. Muller M. Theristis M. Smestad G.P. Almonacid F. Fernández E.F. Quantifying the impact of inverter clipping on photovoltaic performance and soiling losses Renew. Energy 2024 225 120317 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120317
- Deline C. Muller M. White R. Perry K. Springer M. Deceglie M. Jordan D. Availability and Performance Loss Factors for U.S. PV Fleet Systems Technical Report NREL/TP-5K00-88769 National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, CO, USA 2024 10.2172/2318550
- Chen X. Li B. Braid J.L. Byford B. Colvin D.J. Glaws A. Jost N. Pierce B. Rabade S. Springer M. et al. Open data sets for assessing photovoltaic system reliability Appl. Energy 2025 395 126132 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126132
- Dhimish M. Vieira R. Poulsen P.B. Reliability analysis of residential photovoltaic systems across five climatic zones: Performance, degradation, and fault trends Energies 2025 18 6125 10.3390/en18236125
- Anderson K.S. Hansen C.W. Holmgren W.F. Jensen A.R. Mikofski M.A. Driesse A. pvlib python: 2023 project update J. Open Source Softw. 2023 8 5994 10.21105/joss.05994
- Jensen A.R. Anderson K.S. Holmgren W.F. Mikofski M.A. Hansen C.W. Boeman L.J. Loonen R. pvlib iotools—Open-source Python functions for seamless access to solar irradiance data Sol. Energy 2023 266 112092 10.1016/j.solener.2023.112092
- Lindig S. Herz M. Ascencio-Vásquez J. Theristis M. Herteleer B. Deckx J. Anderson K.S. Review of technical photovoltaic key performance indicators and the importance of data quality routines Sol. RRL 2024 8 2400634 10.1002/solr.202400634
- Lindig S. Moser D. Curran A.J. Rath K. Khalilnejad A. French R.H. Herz M. Müller B. Makrides G. Georghiou G. et al. International collaboration framework for the calculation of performance loss rates: Data quality, benchmarks, and trends (towards a uniform methodology) Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 2021 29 573 602 10.1002/pip.3397
- Fan H. Fu S. Ji F. Ma L. Wang Y. Sun Y. A fast and effective method for reliability assessment of PV inverter Int. J. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 2026 174 111518 10.1016/j.ijepes.2025.111518
- Francisti J. Fodor K. Balogh Z. Magdin M. Predictive modeling and anomaly detection in solar PV inverters using machine learning Results Eng. 2025 28 108348 10.1016/j.rineng.2025.108348
- Liu Y. Duran E. Bruce A. Yildiz B. Severiano B.M. Ibrahim I.A. Rispler J. Martell C. Rougieux F. A methodological review of cost-effective data-driven fault detection and diagnosis in distributed photovoltaic systems Appl. Energy 2025 401 126636 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126636
- Alawasa K.M. Al-Badi A.H. Investigation and Analysis of the Power Quality in an Academic Institution’s Electrical Distribution System Energies 2024 17 3998 10.3390/en17163998
- Atsu D. Seres I. Farkas I. Power quality assessment and compliance of grid-connected PV systems in low voltage networks using microinverters Energy Syst. 2026 17 551 582 10.1007/s12667-024-00665-9
- IEC 61683:1999 Photovoltaic Systems—Power Conditioners—Procedure for Measuring Efficiency International Electrotechnical Commission Geneva, Switzerland 1999
Issue
| Processes, vol. 14, 2026, Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.3390/pr14162677 |
Copyright MDPI Processes |