Design and development of an automated application for the analysis of monitoring data of Grid Connected Photovoltaic installations

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to design and develop an application for automating the operating point of grid-connected the analysis photovoltaic of (PV) installations. This application integrates data from all of the devices that monitor information on PV installations, such as environmental sensors, inverters and meters, and it automates the storage, treatment and easy access to all information. The application is comprised by a Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS), with a common database to store the technical data of the various components of each PV installation, and a database for each of the installations to be analyzed, linked among them and with the previous one, where data from monitoring and calculated magnitudes would be stored. Moreover a software named S·lar was developed to determine, from monitored data, some standard magnitudes related to performances and losses of PV installation components at different time scales, and to visualize in a graphical and numerical way all the stored information. This tool enables to analyze PV facilities installed by small companies, with different configurations and technical specifications, in order to control and improve their production and maintenance, based on a more comprehensive and detailed study of their real operation.