Explainability Approach-Based Series Arc Fault Detection Method for Photovoltaic Systems

Arc fault detection devices are mandatory worldwide for mitigating DC series arc faults in photovoltaic systems. However, they are prone to nuisance tripping. Artificial intelligence-based approaches can be a solution, but they are “black boxes” and challenging to modify. This paper proposes an explainability and attention-based method to investigate the intensive details of such an algorithm. The contributions of an arc feature to the proposed model can be visualized by the proposed interpretable methodology so that insensitive arc features can be removed to reduce the quantity of input data. Additionally, the structure of the proposed model can be optimized by cutting the redundant layers. Thus, an accuracy of 99.63% is achieved with only 48.48% of the parameters compared to the original model. Finally, the optimized model is implemented by a Cortex M7-based microprocessor with a runtime of only 7.8 ms, making it ready for industrial application.