Development of a Prototype for Monitoring Photovoltaic Self-Consumption Systems

Abstract

Currently, the increasing energy consumption around the world and the environmental impact resulting from the use of fossil fuel-based energy have promoted the use of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar energy. The main characteristic of this type of energy is its unpredictability, as it depends on meteorological conditions. In this sense, monitoring the power generation of photovoltaic systems (PVS) in order to analyze their performance is becoming crucial. The purpose of this paper is to design a monitoring system for a residential photovoltaic self-consumption system which employs an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to estimate the photovoltaic power generation according to solar radiation and temperature. The architecture of the developed prototype will be described and the benefits of providing the use of IoT for monitoring will be highlighted, since all data collected by the data acquisition system (DAS) may be stored in the Cloud. The comparison of the results with those of other monitoring systems was very positive, with an uncertainty that complies with the IEC61724 standard.