Real-Time Monitoring System for a Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plant

There is, at present, considerable interest in the storage and dispatchability of photovoltaic (PV) energy, together with the need to manage power flows in real-time. This paper presents a new system, PV-on time, which has been developed to supervise the operating mode of a Grid-Connected Utility-Scale PV Power Plant in order to ensure the reliability and continuity of its supply. This system presents an architecture of acquisition devices, including wireless sensors distributed around the plant, which measure the required information. It is also equipped with a high-precision protocol for synchronizing all data acquisition equipment, something that is necessary for correctly establishing relationships among events in the plant. Moreover, a system for monitoring and supervising all of the distributed devices, as well as for the real-time treatment of all the registered information, is presented. Performances were analyzed in a 400 kW transformation center belonging to a 6.1 MW Utility-Scale PV Power Plant. In addition to monitoring the performance of all of the PV plant’s components and detecting any failures or deviations in production, this system enables users to control the power quality of the signal injected and the influence of the installation on the distribution grid

Aurinkosähkön tutkimusvoimalan mittaus- ja tiedontallennusjärjestelmä

The photovoltaic research power plant of the Department of Electrical Energy Engineering at the Technical University of Tampere consists of 69 solar modules in different configurations, 21 solar (SP Lite 2) and temperature (Pt100) sensors, data measuring and logging cards (cRIO 9074, NI 9144, 2 NI 9205 and 6 NI 9217) and two weather stations with temperature and humidity sensors (HMP155), wind sensor (WS425) and irradiance sensors (CMP21 and CMP22). This thesis is about connecting these devices together and creating an easy to use and efficient but complex system which processes, collects, saves and provides data from the sensors to researchers. The main goal is to provide researchers with an easy access to the data from the sensors from extended time periods. In the thesis different options and methods to implement the parts of the system have been studied carefully before implementing. The main parts of the system implementation are the following: The data from the sensors are transmitted via cables and extension cables to the data measuring and logging cards which are connected to the local network. Sensors are either grounded from the cable or from the structure. In addition, a lightning rod was built and installed to protect the wind sensor and personnel. The data processing, collecting and saving implementations have mostly been done in LabVIEW. The data are processed by averaging the data to reduce noise and sending it at a 10 Hz rate to the host computer to be saved into a PostgrSQL database. A file-based system alternative to store the data was also implemented. A graphical user interface (GUI) implementation to the MATLAB was made to help researchers gain specific data from the database more easily. A public Internet site was created in the end for the system, and it offers limited general information to everyone who is interested. The system was successfully implemented and completed. It is running 24/7 and ready for researchers to take advantage. Everything in the system has been made with the focus that the system will be expanded, and it should be easy to do so in future. It is recommended to study and understand how the system works before expanding it

A Portable Implementation on Industrial Devices of a Predictive Controller Using Graphical Programming

This paper presents an approach for developing an Extended Prediction Self-Adaptive Controller employing graphical programming of industrial standard devices, for controlling fast processes. For comparison purposes, the algorithm has been implemented on three different FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) chips. The paper presents research aspects regarding graphical programming controller design, showing that a single advanced control application can run on different targets without requiring significant program modifications. Based on the time needed for processing the control signal and on the application, one can efficiently and easily select the most appropriate device. To exemplify the procedure, a conclusive case study is presented

Advanced photonic and electronic systems - WILGA 2017

WILGA annual symposium on advanced photonic and electronic systems has been organized by young scientist for young scientists since two decades. It traditionally gathers more than 350 young researchers and their tutors. Ph.D students and graduates present their recent achievements during well attended oral sessions. Wilga is a very good digest of Ph.D. works carried out at technical universities in electronics and photonics, as well as information sciences throughout Poland and some neighboring countries. Publishing patronage over Wilga keep Elektronika technical journal by SEP, IJET by PAN and Proceedings of SPIE. The latter world editorial series publishes annually more than 200 papers from Wilga. Wilga 2017 was the XL edition of this meeting. The following topical tracks were distinguished: photonics, electronics, information technologies and system research. The article is a digest of some chosen works presented during Wilga 2017 symposium. WILGA 2017 works were published in Proc. SPIE vol.10445

High Granularity approaches for effective energy delivery from Photovoltaic Sources

Silicon solar cell technology is a fully mature technology but the need to compete with traditional and other renewable energy sources urges to improve the overall efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) system by a significant amount. Regardless of the solar panel efficiency, the difference between the nominal performance of a PV system and the energy actually produced is quite high, and it can be quantified in the order of 20%. A loss term, often underestimated, depends on possible failure of the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms in the presence of multiple maximum power points in power-voltage characteristic, arising in mismatch conditions. This work proposes High Granularity (HG) approaches in order to improve the PV energy yield: a monitoring strategy, a modeling and a power flux control of the whole PV system, all performed at level of single elementary source (i.e., PV cell or PV panel). An innovative HG sensor infrastructure was developed, and the measurements were exploited to perform an automatic PV system reconfiguration, and to design an information based MPPT. Moreover, the data validated a circuit HG model describing the PV system at single cell level, which also accounts for the electrothermal effect. The model was exploited in an automatic tool which translates an AutoCAD project of a PV plant in an equivalent circuit netlist. Finally, the results were employed to investigate the effectiveness of distributed power conversion – in particular the efficiency of the multilevel cascaded H bridge converter controlled by means of an innovative strategy, which overcomes some issues related to the need of performing a distributed MPPT, was assessed

Design, control and management of renewable energy plants and technologies

Nowadays, and even more in the next decades, the availability and easy-access to energy sources represent a crucial asset for the world development and the progress of people and nations. At the same time, the depletion of natural resources, together with the increase of the anthropic activity impact on the Earth ecosystem and climate, force communities and institutions, at all levels, to discuss and actuate different approaches to achieve the social and economic growth, based on the so-called sustainable development pattern. In such a scenario, renewable energy sources, i.e. solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, etc., certainly play a key role to join progress and attention to the environmental issues. The present Ph.D. dissertation focuses on such topics investigating strategies, methods and innovative approaches for the effective design, control and management of renewable energy plants and technologies. Specifically, the energy scenario is investigated from a global point of view proposing studies and optimization models highlighting the relevance and the potential impact of the major energy sources, both renewable and conventional. Such sources represent the elements of a big puzzle, i.e. the energy mix, in which their economic and environmental strengths should be emphasized minimizing the associated negative impacts and weaknesses. Among renewable sources, solar energy is of primary importance for availability, diffusion and potential impact. The present Ph.D. dissertation particularly investigates such a source presenting models, methods and prototypes to increase its relevance in the energy mix. The fundamentals of solar energy, together with innovative approaches to estimate the solar radiation components, are provided. Furthermore, the pioneering concentrating solar sector is deeply focused presenting the design, development and preliminary field-test of a bi-axial Fresnel solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) concentrating prototype. Possible solar tracking strategies and control algorithms are, then, investigated describing a customized semi-automatic motion control platform, developed in LabViewTM programming environment. Finally, the last section, proposes an effective approach for the design of a solar simulator, the most frequently adopted device in solar optic laboratory tests. In conclusion, the present Ph.D. dissertation describes effective strategies for the renewable energy spread, considering their performances and their potential impact to achieve the ambitious challenge of a sustainable living planet

Advanced Operation and Maintenance in Solar Plants, Wind Farms and Microgrids

This reprint presents advances in operation and maintenance in solar plants, wind farms and microgrids. This compendium of scientific articles will help clarify the current advances in this subject, so it is expected that it will please the reader

Design and Control of Power Converters 2019

In this book, 20 papers focused on different fields of power electronics are gathered. Approximately half of the papers are focused on different control issues and techniques, ranging from the computer-aided design of digital compensators to more specific approaches such as fuzzy or sliding control techniques. The rest of the papers are focused on the design of novel topologies. The fields in which these controls and topologies are applied are varied: MMCs, photovoltaic systems, supercapacitors and traction systems, LEDs, wireless power transfer, etc

Advancements in Real-Time Simulation of Power and Energy Systems

Modern power and energy systems are characterized by the wide integration of distributed generation, storage and electric vehicles, adoption of ICT solutions, and interconnection of different energy carriers and consumer engagement, posing new challenges and creating new opportunities. Advanced testing and validation methods are needed to efficiently validate power equipment and controls in the contemporary complex environment and support the transition to a cleaner and sustainable energy system. Real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation has proven to be an effective method for validating and de-risking power system equipment in highly realistic, flexible, and repeatable conditions. Controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) and power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) are the two main HIL simulation methods used in industry and academia that contribute to system-level testing enhancement by exploiting the flexibility of digital simulations in testing actual controllers and power equipment. This book addresses recent advances in real-time HIL simulation in several domains (also in new and promising areas), including technique improvements to promote its wider use. It is composed of 14 papers dealing with advances in HIL testing of power electronic converters, power system protection, modeling for real-time digital simulation, co-simulation, geographically distributed HIL, and multiphysics HIL, among other topics