Designing and implementation of energy‐efficient wireless photovoltaic monitoring system. Issue 2 (29th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Khan, Mahmood; Iqbal, Javed; Ali, Muhammad; Muhmmad, Afaq; Zahir, Ali; Ali, Nadir
• Is Part Of: Transactions on emerging telecommunications technologies. Volume 33:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-07-29
• Subjects: Telecommunication -- Periodicals; 384.05
• DOI: 10.1002/ett.3685
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2161-5748

Abstract

Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) cell usually shows unpredictable results due to abrupt change in environment. Environmental parameters such as temperature, dust factor, irradiance, and air mass have direct influence on the output of PV cells. Monitoring PV and its related environmental parameters is very important for understanding and analysis of PV in practical conditions. The PV parameters have been found useful in many ways like reliability analysis, life cycle costing, returns on investment calculation, loss of load probability, and optimal designing of PV power supplies. Currently, designed PV monitoring systems (PVMS) are reported to be expensive, complex, and are limited in their applications, out of which only few are wireless. In this article, we design and implement a simple cost‐effective and wireless PV monitoring solution. The design PVMS is based on microcontrollers, light‐dependent resistors, current sensor, analog‐to‐digital converter, solid state relays, ZigBee (XBee) wireless microcontroller, and LabVIEW‐based data logging software. The designed PVMS performs the real‐time analysis and data logging of open circuit voltage ( V oc ), short circuit current ( J sc ), ambient temperature ( T a ), cell temperature ( T cell ), and maximum power point. In addition, real‐time I‐V and P‐V characterization of PV module is another valuable feature embedded in the designed PVMS. Abstract : Four important parameters from the output of Solar Panel are measured via temperature sensor LM35, LDR, voltage and current sensor ACS 712. These parameters are converted to digital form through ADC converter and then transmitted via Zigbee that transmits the data at 2.4 GHz via IEEE 802.15.4 to another Zigbee connected with the PC. The LABVIEW software on computer is designed to analyze and simulate the data accordingly. The system also performs real time I‐V and P‐V characterization of PV module. The accuracy of proposed model is validated by real time I‐V and P‐V obtained experimentally with the one simulated in PSIM software.