Trio-PV Monitor: A Smart IoT-Based Instrument for Continuous and Reliable Monitoring of Solar PV Installations

Abstract

This paper introduces a Trio-PV monitor: a smart IoT-based instrument for the continuous and accurate monitoring of solar PV systems. The instrument is a synergistic combination of electronic hardware, desktop applications and a website. It has been conceived to provide monitoring, storage, and sharing as well as to perform statistical operations on solar energy-related data collected at any chosen site. The instrument features high flexibility, with the capacity of monitoring PV plants of up to a 90 kW rating. It is intentionally equipped with large-range weather-proof sensors, permitting monitoring and evaluation across different seasons and geographical areas. The proposed instrument targets six keys operating variables of a PV systems, namely irradiance, panel-temperature, ambient temperature, humidity, PV current and voltage. The automated design of the Trio-PV monitor allows for continuous operation for 12 h within a day. The instrument has been used to monitor simple 30 W solar PV-DC connected systems, with acquired results revealing it practical suitability and soundness. The friendly user interface of the system allows a graphical visualization of monitored parameters in real time through an installed desktop application. Finally, the IoT competence of the proposed instrument extensively allows data acquisition and the monitoring of a PV system from any location in the world. It is envisioned that the developed instrument would be a leverage package for data acquisition and the monitoring of PV system installations in developing countries and especially in Cameroon where access to information on PV systems is still highly costly and unreliable.

Keywords

• Trio-PV system monitor
• PV system monitoring
• PV parameters
• PV data
• IoT-based PV system monitoring