Photovoltaic system is widely installed to increase the share of renewable energy as well as to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel based energy. Photovoltaic (PV) is one of the most potential renewable energy based power generation systems. Monitoring of PV system is very important to send information that allows owners to maintain, operate and control these systems to reduce maintenance costs and to avoid unwanted electric power disruptions. Different monitoring systems have been introduced with the time following different requirements. Circuit complexity, availability of friendly graphical user interface, easy to understand system architecture, maintenance facility and customization ability for end user differ from system to system along with cost issues. This paper provides an overview of architectures and features of various PV monitoring systems based on different methods. There are various technologies for PV monitoring and control, developed as for commercial use or research tasks. It has been seen that a large portion of the work is done on classifications, for example, Internet based Monitoring using Servers, TCP/IP, GPRS and so forth. There are various methodologies for data acquisition, for example, PLC (Power Line Communication), PIC, Reference cell, National Instruments etc. Various requirements are considered while selecting a proper monitoring system for an application. Review of various monitoring technologies with system attributes and working structures have been discussed to get a clear view of merits and demerits of existing PV monitoring systems. All the systems discussed in this paper have pros and cons, and these systems were developed following different requirements. In the end, a particular cost effective monitoring system using Arduino microcontroller has been proposed considering both research and user level requirements from perspectives of cost, availability of parts/modules and features, compatibility with sensors and end-devices etc.

Global modern monitoring systems for PV based power generation: A review

Solar photovoltaic (PV) is one of the prominent sustainable energy sources which shares a greater percentage of the energy generated from renewable resources. As the need for solar energy has risen tremendously in the last few decades, monitoring technologies have received considerable attention in relation to performance enhancement. Recently, the solar PV monitoring system has been integrated with a wireless platform that comprises data acquisition from various sensors and nodes through wireless data transmission. However, several issues could affect the performance of solar PV monitoring, such as large data management, signal interference, long-range data transmission, and security. Therefore, this paper comprehensively reviews the progress of several solar PV-based monitoring technologies focusing on various data processing modules and data transmission protocols. Each module and transmission protocol-based monitoring technology is investigated with regard to type, design, implementations, specifications, and limitations. The critical discussion and analysis are carried out with respect to configurations, parameters monitored, software, platform, achievements, and suggestions. Moreover, various key issues and challenges are explored to identify the existing research gaps. Finally, this review delivers selective proposals for future research works. All the highlighted insights of this review will hopefully lead to increased efforts toward the enhancement of the monitoring technologies in future sustainable solar PV applications.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8120/pdf

A Review of Monitoring Technologies for Solar PV Systems Using Data Processing Modules and Transmission Protocols: Progress, Challenges and Prospects

Smart grids exploit the capability of information and communication technologies especially internet of things, to improve the sustainability, quality and the performance of energy production and demand previsions, whereas reducing resource consumption and increasing renewable energies integration. This paper aims to present a cost-effective and open source internet of things solution that could collect in intelligent manner and monitor in real-time the produced power and environmental conditions of solar stations. The solution is designed as a laboratory prototype that could be extended to monitor large scale photovoltaic stations using small adjustments. The system also provides an alert to a remote user, when there is a deviation of solar power generation quality parameters from the predefined set of standard values.

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Design and implementation of an intelligent low-cost IoT solution for energy monitoring of photovoltaic stations

This paper presents the concept and operating principles of a flexible real-time long-term monitoring system for photovoltaic (PV) plants. Compared to traditional solutions which require dedicated hardware and/or specific data logging systems, the monitoring system we propose allows the user to monitor the grid-connected PV system using commercial of the shelf hardware devices and software programs such as LabVIEW and Weather Link software. The proposed system is built around wired/wireless devices and internet of things (IoT) concept. It provides customizable fast, reliable and secure monitoring tool suitable for deployment in PV systems management. The grid-connected PV monitoring system (GCPV-MS) is developed and installed at the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. The results obtained from this project indicate how IoT concept can be utilized in remote PV monitoring systems.

Grid-connected PV monitoring system (GCPV-MS)

The increasing of photovoltaic plant installations at different scales promotes the development of monitoring systems that facilitate the communication, control and automation of the generating units, allowing to guarantee the predicted energy generation performance. Monitoring systems are composed of different interfaces that involve sensing and capturing data; conversion, treatment, pre-storage and transmission of data; and publishing and final storage through graphic interface. This article focuses on describing the growth of decentralized plants, as well as the increasing demand for monitoring and data acquisition system, commenting the limitations of current commercial models and presenting alternative developed monitoring systems with different platforms.

IoT Monitoring systems applied to photovoltaic generation: The relevance for increasing decentralized plants

A real-time energy monitoring system for grid-tied Photovoltaic (PV) installations was developed and deployed in a household located at Barangka, Marikina. The system consists of a BeagleBone Black which serves as the device to processes the measured data from the two power analyzers and the DC sensor. It also features a Mobile and Web-based monitor and analytics platform for end user utilization, and provides a forecasting algorithm for the user's projected monthly bill. One of the receiving ends is a server that stores the data and hosts the web application which aggregates, analyzes and presents the general power generation and grid consumption to the user. The other receiving end, an Android application, displays the real-time graph of the generated solar energy and the total energy consumed by the load, in this case, a residential load.

Judd Kristian I. Floriza

Papers

Real-time energy monitoring system for grid-tied Photovoltaic installations