Abstract:
The technologies involved in solar photovoltaic (SPV) conversion have been advancing rapidly. Since
last decade, the costs of SPV panel and other subsystems have been regularly decreasing which resulted in
increase in demand and competition in business. The future demand for the SPV systems, will largely
depend on user’s perception of successful performance of the SPV systems. Recognizing this fact, the SPV
systems integrators and operators have started incorporating modern technology features such as netmetering,
advanced/smart metering, data recording and acquisition facilities and web-based platform for
online monitoring. These features are important to users of the system, as well as system operators,
researchers and developers. In this work, we present results of online monitoring of performance of a
stand-alone SPV (SA-SPV) system (3.7 kWp), installed on a residential building, located 25 km away from
the monitoring station, with the objective of generating accurate performance records of SA-SPV systems
in the region. The results are useful for setting benchmarks for enhancing performance of SA-SPV systems,
for large number such systems to be installed in the region. The widely varying orientations of roof surfaces
of existing residential buildings offer stiff challenges to system integrators in guaranteeing performance of
the system. Also, the load matching for the installed system is a challenging task, particularly in residential
buildings. The online monitoring also provides insights into the performance of the sub-systems during
short interval of 10minutes. The performance is measured in terms of power output of PV array, state of
charge (SoC) of battery, and energy supplied to load by the PV array or by the utility grid. The online
monitoring also helps in predicting performance of the system. The challenges in using online monitoring
system are due to limited access to internet and loss of performance data at SA-SPV end. It is suggested
that the scope of online monitoring system may be enhanced by including web camera for live streaming
of data for periodic visual inspection.
