Web-Based System Design to Monitor and Control the Mismatching Effects in a Vast Solar Farm

Abstract

It is a known fact that mismatching in the PV array leads to a drastic reduction in the system efficiency. Soiling and partial shading are the main reasons for this mismatching. In vast solar PV farms, the detection of the mismatching in an individual PV panel is a difficult task since it is usually done manually. In this paper, a new design is proposed to monitor the production of individual PV panel periodically no matter how it is connected in the array. The proposed design allows the user to monitor the open circuit voltage (VOC), the short circuit current (ISC) and the delivered power for each PV panel in the farm. It is also capable of controlling each panel to work at its maximum power point (MPP) using a built in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) sub-circuit on each solar panel. The overall mismatching for each string will be calculated and presented online with a website which is designed for this purpose. The presented system depicts a complete wireless sensor network, which does not need any extra wiring and is characterized by being of low cost, reliable and efficient.