Development of an IoT power management system for photovoltaic power plants

Abstract

This study describes the development of a power management system for photovoltaic systems (PVS). A web application was developed, receiving data from a hardware interface, installed in each photovoltaic array allowing online power monitoring, fault detection, and configuration of remote power plant installations. The designed system is based on open-source / hardware technologies. Reports for variable periods of time of power generation at PV array, PV string, and at PV cell level are available to the system operator. The benefits, and drawbacks of the developed system are compared along with other systems presented in the literature using criteria in order to evaluate the performance of the designed system. The developed system was tested and compared to the other implementations provides many advantages, such as fault detection per PV cell, power monitoring on all components of the PV array (PV array, string and cell), and the use of open-source / hardware that significantly reduces costs, making the system ideal for small and medium enterprises.