Development of a Wireless Sensor Network for Individual Monitoring of Panels in a Photovoltaic Plant

• Main Authors: Miguel J. Prieto, Alberto M. Pernía, Fernando Nuño, Juan Díaz, Pedro J. Villegas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-01-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: photovoltaic power systems; energy storage; supercapacitors; wireless sensor networks
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/14/2/2379

With photovoltaic (PV) systems proliferating in the last few years due to the high prices of fossil fuels and pollution issues, among others, it is extremely important to monitor the efficiency of these plants and optimize the energy production process. This will also result in improvements related to the maintenance and security of the installation. In order to do so, the main parameters in the plant must be continuously monitored so that the appropriate actions can be carried out. This monitoring should not only be carried out at a global level, but also at panel-level, so that a better understanding of what is actually happening in the PV plant can be obtained. This paper presents a system based on a wireless sensor network (WSN) that includes all the components required for such monitoring as well as a power supply obtaining the energy required by the sensors from the photovoltaic panels. The system proposed succeeds in identifying all the nodes in the network and provides real-time monitoring while tracking efficiency, features, failures and weaknesses from a single cell up to the whole infrastructure. Thus, the decision-making process is simplified, which contributes to reducing failures, wastes and, consequently, costs.