Real-Time Monitoring System for a Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plant

Abstract

There is, at present, considerable interest in the storage and dispatchability of photovoltaic (PV) energy, together with the need to manage power flows in real-time. This paper presents a new system, PV-on time, which has been developed to supervise the operating mode of a Grid-Connected Utility-Scale PV Power Plant in order to ensure the reliability and continuity of its supply. This system presents an architecture of acquisition devices, including wireless sensors distributed around the plant, which measure the required information. It is also equipped with a high-precision protocol for synchronizing all data acquisition equipment, something that is necessary for correctly establishing relationships among events in the plant. Moreover, a system for monitoring and supervising all of the distributed devices, as well as for the real-time treatment of all the registered information, is presented. Performances were analyzed in a 400 kW transformation center belonging to a 6.1 MW Utility-Scale PV Power Plant. In addition to monitoring the performance of all of the PV plant’s components and detecting any failures or deviations in production, this system enables users to control the power quality of the signal injected and the influence of the installation on the distribution grid.

One-Year Monitoring PV Power Plant Installed on Rooftop of Mineirão Fifa World Cup/Olympics Football Stadium

“…Monitoring a PV system is a well-known and widespread practice around world [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Monitoring all operational parameters of a PV solar plant (e.g., DC-AC voltages, currents, power, solar radiation, etc.)…”

Evaluation of a new Power Quality index, based in Higher Order Statistics

“…In addition, Power Quality (PQ) must be evaluated in every point of the power grid, with the objective of detect and correct as soon as possible consequences of a disturbance in a high connection level grid. In this line, researchers worldwide has been working in this line, for photovoltaics plants [8] [9] , advanced harmonic detection [10] [11] , or using advanced techniques as Higher-Order Statistics (HOS) [12] [13] . This last research line inspires the actual work.…”

Graphical Diagnosis of Performances in Photovoltaic Systems: A Case Study in Southern Spain

“…This latter value is Energies 2017, 10,1964 4 of 26 defined as the Normal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT) and represents the mean PV cell junction temperature in the so-called Nominal Terrestrial Environment (NTE) conditions (ambient temperature T a,NTE = 20 • C, wind speed v NTE = 1 m/s on the front and back sides of the PV module and irradiance G NTE = 800 W/m 2 ) in an open-rack mounted, open-circuit module tilted perpendicular to the solar noon. The T NOCT should characterize the module's temperature dependence and should allow the estimation of the module's performance and energy yield over time [60].…”

“…Energies 2017, 10,1964 10 of 25 lowest number of hours with non-zero values of irradiance. The hour daily range with solar radiation increases progressively until the summer months, where the number of hours with sun and therefore electricity production is the highest.…”

“…For an adequate intervention of all these O&M activities, the starting point is the continuous monitoring and supervision of both the PV power plant conditions and the performance of all its components [10,11]. An important requirement in this sector is to improve the ways of effectively processing and analyzing the large amount of data registered.…”