Photovoltaic power generation is considered to be one of the most promising power generation forms. It is difficult to accurately assess the reliability of the photovoltaic system (PVS) for the volatility and intermittent of the light intensity. By analyzing PVS component failure modes and their impacts on PVS output power, the reliability model of PVS is built. Then the probability model of PVS output power is presented by considering both illumination uncertainty and PVS component random faults. According to the influence of components random faults outside the intentional islands on the reliability of load points inside the intentional islands, the concepts of repair zone, isolation zone and zero zone are defined. Furthermore, by considering the fail-operation of breaker and fuse, the concept for zone hierarchy is proposed, and the analytical formulas to calculate reliability indices of the load points inside the intentional islands are deduced. The application of the presented reliability evaluation model is clarified using a typical example to show the practicality and validity of the proposed approach.