Abstract
An efficient monitoring and control system for solar photovoltaic modules, which combines the use of a non-linear MPPT backstepping controller with a custom wireless sensor network (WSN) has been developed. The infrastructure consists of a wireless smart photovoltaic system (WSPS) and a wireless centralized control system (WCC). The data of sensing, coordination and control is handled by using a WSN based on IEEE 802.15.4 technology in beacon enable mode and with guaranteed time slot. This assures the data transmission and a synchronous acquisition, which are critical elements in a wireless photovoltaic monitoring system. All measured data is gathered by an autonomous, compact and low-cost sensor node installed in each PV module, and it is transferred to the coordinator node. The power consumption of the sensor node represents only 0.25% of the power delivered by the photovoltaic module. A backstepping controller to track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) by means of a buck-boost converter derives the reference parameters to return to each PV module accordingly. The wireless solution uses low latency techniques to achieve a real-time monitoring and a stable performance of the controller. The centralized control identifies all the network nodes and significantly simplifies the maintenance operations. Experimental validation shows the robustness against interference and security in the wireless data transmission and confirms the feasibility of the proposed wireless sensor system in tracking the maximum power transfer under different weather conditions, achieving an efficiency over the 99% in the MPPT.
Highlights
In recent years, a new generation of sensors has emerged, which are independent of a specific electronic system and that incorporate in the same device the transducer, the power supply, and a communication module equipped with a certain intelligence, capable of organizing itself, of having a certain computing capacity, and of executing protocol and encryption algorithms, in addition to wirelessly interconnecting with other nodes similar to it
This paper aims to develop a wireless remote monitoring and control system of solar photovoltaic modules
FIELD TEST OF THE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION RELIABILITY The DC/DC converters work with a lot of power and generate hard-to-control magnetic fields, which in this application can affect the wireless transmission of data between the sensor nodes and the coordinating node
Summary
A new generation of sensors has emerged, which are independent of a specific electronic system and that incorporate in the same device the transducer (of the variable or variables that are of interest to measure), the power supply, and a communication module equipped with a certain intelligence, capable of organizing itself, of having a certain computing capacity, and of executing protocol and encryption algorithms, in addition to wirelessly interconnecting with other nodes similar to it. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Kok Lim Alvin Yau. As a result of this deployment, the so-called wireless sensor networks (WSN) have emerged, which contain a multitude of individual sensors that exchange information with each other and/or with a centralized node, without the need for cables and through a pre-established communication protocol [2]. There is a node responsible for centralizing the information and exchanging it with other networks, called the base station, sink node or gateway. The user can control the network through the base station Aspects such as data rate, latency, synchronization, robustness against interference, security and quality of service (QoS) are parameters to be considered in the design of the WSN
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