IoT Based Solar Field Monitoring and Control

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the system network of physical object devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with sensors, electronics, software and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. IoT is expected to generate large amounts of data from diverse locations. IoT is one of the platforms for today’s smart city and smart energy management systems. In this paper, we are interested in Photovoltaic systems (PV) which generate electricity from solar radiation. More precisely, our contribution consists in the implementation of a remote monitoring and control PV system for standalone applications located in an open environment. The novelty of our approach relies on the fact that it is operational even in the case of a huge spread deployment of PV system. Monitoring systems provide 24/7 data log of the system, which maximizes the benefits of early-warning systems, trending and performance reporting as a part of their routine of monitoring. In addition, they use systems for monitoring news, weather and spot-market pricing to ensure all issues are included in the monitoring process. Our solution aims to be a good replacement of manually module checking which is not recommended because of time-consuming, less accuracy and potentially dangerous to the operator. Then, we introduce, as a communication technology, a full duplex digital system using the infrastructure of the following system. The result of our demonstration shows that the system can monitor and control the remote communication between the monitoring center and the PV station. Thus, the remote monitoring functions are realized in real-time.