See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/228347136

Measurement & analysis in PV systems

Article · July 2010

CITATIONS READS

6 531

6 authors, including:

Costin Cepisca Traian Ivanovici

Polytechnic University of Bucharest Valahia University of Târgoviste
229 PUBLICATIONS   664 CITATIONS    32 PUBLICATIONS   188 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Alin Pohoata Adela Gabriela Husu

Valahia University of Târgoviste Valahia University of Târgoviste
30 PUBLICATIONS   182 CITATIONS    20 PUBLICATIONS   19 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

ROKIDAIR – Towards a better protection of children against air pollution threats in the urban areas of Romania View project

Contributions to the development of electromagnetism View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Costin Cepisca on 27 May 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

Measurement & Analysis in PV Systems

VALENTIN DOGARU ULIERU*, COSTIN CEPISCA**, TRAIAN DANIEL
IVANOVICI*, ALIN POHOATA*, ADELA HUSU*, LUCIA PASCALE*
*Electronics, Telecommunications and Energetic Department
Electrical Engineering Faculty
Valahia University of Targoviste,
CAROL I, no.2, Targoviste, ROMANIA
** Electrical Engineering Faculty
POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
www.valahia.ro, www.upb.ro

Abstract: - Data-acquisition systems are widely used in renewable energy source (RES)
applications in order to collect data regarding the installed system performance, for evaluation
purposes. The aim of this paper is to introduce a system developed for monitoring PV solar
system using a novel procedure based on virtual instrumentation. The measurements and
processing of the data are made using high precision I/O modular field point (FP) devices as
hardware, a data acquisition board (PCI 6023 E) as software and the package of graphic
programming, LabVIEW. The system is able to store and display the values of current and
voltage, simultaneously trace characteristics (current-voltage, power-voltage, power-charge
resistance), present the measured parameters (during the data acquisition) in tables,
continuous acquisition and save data into files for future processing.

Key-Words: - data acquisition, photovoltaic systems, LabVIEW, renewable energy.

1 Introduction In the last years, the cost of computer and electronic

The development of photovoltaic systems is equipment designed for data acquisition decreases
accompanied by a rapid adaptation of measurement and there are good reasons to install accurate and
and control systems to the latest trends in digital sophisticated PV monitoring systems.
techniques and computer-aided measurement [1]. The hardware and software development makes
The specialized photovoltaic (PV) data acquisition possible new technical solutions for PV DAS and, in
systems (DAS) have been recognized as an this context, this paper refers to a Romanian PV
inevitable tool in the PV monitoring systems and the power station and a new monitoring and control
data collecting for the optimizing the performance of system.
energy conversion [2]. Since many years, different The proposed system consists of a set of sensors for
DAS have been used in different equipment, to measuring both meteorological and electrical
evaluate: parameters (photovoltaic voltage and current). The
- the performances of solar cells and modules collected data are first conditioned using precision
in outdoor conditions; electronic circuits and then interfaced to a PC using
- long term stability and reliability of a data-acquisition card. The LabVIEW program is
components of PV systems (PV modules and arrays, used to further process, display and store the
charge controllers, inverters etc.) collected data [9].
- performance of different PV devices in The equipment is capable of real time signal
strongly chargeable conditions; measuring giving information about the performance
- theoretical assumptions and analyses. of the PV power plant, as well as of the energy
The range of tasks proceeded by a PV DAS is quality generated by it. The proposed architecture
usually limited to control of solar irradiation, the permits the system development and has the
current-voltage (I-V) curves of PV modules and advantage of flexibility in the case of changes.
energy flow.

ISSN: 1792-4227 137 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

2 Mathematical relations underlying ⎡ ⎛V ⎞ ⎤

I i = − I d = − I 0 ⎢exp⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ − 1⎥ (6)
the calculation performance of ⎣ ⎝ VT ⎠ ⎦
photovoltaic cells this justifies the name given to the current I d of
A photon who falls in the p-n junction has the effect
occurrence of electrons and holes. Electrons move to "dark current" of photocell.
the n-type silicon layer and holes to the p-type Short-circuit current I sc , respectively no-load
silicon layer. Thus appears a current I ph through voltage Voc of a cell are dependent on the level of
the junction, determined by photovoltaic conversion illumination.
of incident radiation. This current moving through For a given incident radiant power Pr , electrical
the junction from the n-type material to the p-type
power transferred to load R of a photocell is:
material, leads to a direct voltage on external load R
connected to terminals. Voltage cause through the ⎡ ⎛V ⎞ ⎤
P = VI = V ( I s − I 0 ⎢exp⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ − 1⎥ ) (7)
junction a direct current ID , opposite of photovoltaic
current. The current through the junction will be
⎣ ⎝ VT ⎠ ⎦
given by the following relation: The maximum value of this power is obtained at a
point M of the current-voltage characteristic of the
⎡ ⎛V ⎞ ⎤ cell, whose coordinates - results from the condition
I = I ph − I D = I s − I 0 ⎢exp⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ − 1⎥ (1)
⎣ ⎝ VT ⎠ ⎦ ∂P/∂V = 0 - are given by the equations:
where: I0 is the intensity of saturation current at V ⎫
VPMP = Voc - VT ln(1 + PMP ) ⎪
polarization reverse of the junction, and VT is VT ⎪ (8)
thermal voltage equivalent with operating ⎬
temperature of junction, defined by the relation ⎛ I0 ⎞ V
PMP ⎪
I PMP = I ⎜1 + ⎟
kT ph ⎜ Iph ⎟ V + V ⎪
VT = (2) ⎝ ⎠ PMP T⎭
e In case of a passive load, the optimal load resistance
where: k is Boltzmann's constant; will be:
T - absolute temperature; VPMP
e - electron charge. RPMP = (9)
I PMP
At the equation (1) of current-voltage characteristic
of a photocell corresponding an equivalent scheme This value varies in large limits with the level of
represented in Figure 1. illumination, so with the Pr .
An important figure for photovoltaic cells is the so-
called form factor, defined by the relation:
VPMP I PMP
ku = (10)
Voc I g
In the conditions of maximum electrical power
Figure 1: Equivalent diagram of simplified generated on the terminal, PM , the conversion
photovoltaic cell
efficiency is:
From equation of current through the junction
resulting: PM
η= (11)
¾ at short-circuit operating Pr
I sc = I ph (3)
¾ at no-load operating 3 Photovoltaic System- description
I The Solar Amphitheatre at Valahia University of
Voc = VT ln( s + 1) (4)
I0 Targoviste is the first integrated PV building in
Romania and one of the few in Eastern Europe. The
and if I ph > I 0 result: PV System integrated into the roof of the building
⎛I ⎞ has been designed using 66 Optisol SFM 72Bx glass
Voc ≅ VT ln⎜⎜ ph ⎟⎟ (5) roof integrated multi crystalline Si modules
⎝ I0 ⎠ produced by Pilkington Solar and 24 ST40 thin film
In the absence of illumination of the cell, is modules produced by Siemens which generates a
obtained: total amount of 10 KWp. These modules are

ISSN: 1792-4227 138 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

connected to 700, 1100, 2000 and 2500W Sunny resistance, signal conditioning device) and the
Boy inverters, which convert dc energy into ac software application (LabVIEW) which implements
energy by using an intermediate circuit, composed the required functions, playing the part of an
of MOSFET transistor. The research/ experimental interface between the human operator and the
aspects are taken into account and therefore arrays measurement system.
of 4,5,6,9 and 11 photovoltaic modules, were The use of this hardware equipment ensures the
realized. These modules can be serial or parallel flexibility (other virtual instruments can be
connected. The dc voltage produced by the designed) to measure other physical measures using
photovoltaic systems, is converted by the Sunny sensors/transducers which are specific to the
Boy inverters (SWR 700, SWR 1100, SWR 2000 measurement process [10]. Analogue inputs can be
and SWR 2500) and supplied directly into the public differently configured, with a voltage level of
electric system. The use of a controller to monitor ±2.5V, ±5V, ±10V (bipolar/single polar) which can
the operating parameters ensures the sine-wave form be selected through the configuration program of the
of the voltage and current, with a low amount of acquisition board. Acquisition system structure is
harmonics. The control of operations serves to shown in figure 4, and the block diagram of this
totally automated operating and to adjusting the acquisition system is presented in figure 5. The
MPP (maximum power point). The connection front panel of virtual instrument is presented in
diagram of the PV system presented in this paper figure 6.
has been designed after a series of shading effects
analysis and building placement restrictions.

Fig.4. Acquisition System

Fig.2. Valahia University PV System (PV modules

layout)

Fig.5. Block diagram of DAS

For continuous current systems it is necessary to

obtain signals with volt-range amplitude to be
applied to the input of the data acquisition board.
Fig.3. Electric Energy Producing System Using For voltages there can be used voltage dividers
Photovoltaic Panels (phase 1) (which do not ensure galvanic isolation) or voltage
measurement transformers in alternative current
4 Data Acquisition System (ensure galvanic separation). Shunts (current-voltage
The virtual instrument designed by us represents an converters) or current measurement transformers (in
association between the hardware equipment (PCI a.c.) can be used for currents. The use of both
6023 E acquisition board, automatic variable voltage dividers and shunts must be done by taking

ISSN: 1792-4227 139 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

into account the current through the voltage divider,

the voltage drop on the shunt, the power dissipation,
parasite resistances, self-heating effects and
dynamic effects. The solution adopted was to use
current and voltage transducers based on the Hall
Effect. To obtain a good magnetic sensor the
magnetic field is concentrated around the transducer,
by using a circular core (used as a flux concentrator
and made of a material with high magnetic
permeability), which ensures both an increase of the
magnetic field in the area of the sensor and the
independence from the position of the conductor
inside the core. Non-linear behaviour of the flux
concentrator can be obtained by using an operational
amplifier, which injects a compensation current
through the reaction loop.
An improvement on the drawing operating
characteristics was done by design and construction Fig.7. Front panel of DAS (5 Pilkington modules
of an automatic variable resistance AVR (Figure 6) serial connected)
witch reduce the time needed of data acquisition and
processing, and also increase the accuracy of 5 Best fit curve - case studies
processing data obtained in the process 5.1. In the figure 8 is presented the current-voltage
measurement. Also automatic variable resistance diagram for the first case (Siemens modules). As
allows variation of the time needed for data fitting curve we use a sum of two exponential
acquisition using an electronic control unit. functions,
The old method (using a manually variable I (V ) = a ⋅ e b⋅V + c ⋅ e d ⋅V . (12)
resistance) have been purchased several
characteristics of the panels, and after comparing Using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the
them were sized resistance values required in the least square method we find the coefficients:
design variable resistance. a =-0.008235, b =0.02218, c =2.446, d =0.0003435.
The goodness of fit is given by MSE=0.0011 (where
MSE is mean square error).

Fig.6. Automatic variable resistance (AVR)

As we have to determine the operation Fig. 8. IV characteristics

characteristics of the photovoltaic panels and
the panel arrays, the application (Figure 7) In the figure 9 we have a power- voltage diagram for
allows measuring the values of current and this case. As fitting curve we use a 6th degree
voltage, simultaneously trace characteristics polynom.
(current-voltage, power-voltage, power-charge P(V ) = p1 ⋅ V 6 + p 2 ⋅ V 5 + p3 ⋅ V 4 +
(13)
resistance), present the measured parameters + p 4 ⋅ V 3 + p5 ⋅ V 2 + p 6 ⋅ V + p 7
(during the data acquisition) in tables, We obtain the coefficients: p1 = 1.536e-011; p2 = -
continuous acquisition and save data into files 1.33e-008; p3 =3.649e-006; p4 = -0.0004334; p5 =
for future processing.

ISSN: 1792-4227 140 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

0.02208; p6 = 2.052; p7 = 1.19. The goodness of fit For the PV characteristic, the fitting curve can be
is given by MSE= 6.445. obtained by ploynomial regression. We used a 6th
degree polynom. The coefficients are:
p1 = -1.104e-010; p2 = 5.132e-008; p3 = -9.266e-
006; p4 = 0.0008044; p5 = -0.03542; p6 = 4.204; p7
=-3.713. Goodness of fit is given by: MSE= 5.72
In the figure 11 we have the power-voltage diagram.

6 Conclusion
Even though the costs of installations producing
electric energy using photovoltaic panels are high
compared to the costs of conventional installations,
the number of such systems is continuously
increasing. It is very important to determine the
Fig.9. PV characteristics output characteristics of the photovoltaic panels in
order to achieve an accurate connection and
5.2. For the second case (Pilkington modules) we operation of the device and reduce energy losses.
have in the figure 10 the current-voltage diagram for In this paper is introduced a system for
6 modules connected in series. As in the first case monitoring the performance of PV power plants
the fitting curve is given as sum of two exponential using the virtual instrumentation concept. It will
functions. use a hardware based on the National
I (V ) = a ⋅ e b⋅V + c ⋅ e d ⋅V (14) Instruments acquisition board and as software
We find the coefficients: the LabVIEW graphical programming package.
a = -0.00017; b = 0.04504; The equipment is capable of real time signal
c = 3.559l; d =-0.0002937. measuring, giving information about the
The goodness of fit is given by a MSE= 0.000712. performance of the PV power plant, as well as
of the energy quality generated by it. This new
system boasts of high accuracy measurements
coupled with the commercial viability of low
cost. The system has been in operation during
the last two years and all its units have
functioned well.
For the current-voltage diagram we used a sum
of two exponential functions and for the power-
voltage diagram we used a sixth degree
polynom. We obtained the best fitting results
using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for a
Fig.10. IV characteristics robust nonlinear least squares method with
bisquare weights.

References:
[1] Andrei,H, Dogaru,V, Chicco,G, Cepisca,C,
Spertino,F, “Photovoltaic Applications”, in Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 181,
Issues 1-3, January 2007, pp. 267-273
[2] Awerbuch, S, “Energy Diversity and Security
in the EU: Mean-Variance Portfolio Analysis, of
Electricity Generating Mixes, and the Implications
Fig.11. PV characteristics for Renewables”, EURELECTRIC Twin Conf. on
DG, Brussels 2002

ISSN: 1792-4227 141 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

 LATEST TRENDS on CIRCUITS

[3] Dogaru,V, Cepisca,C, Ivanovici,T, “Data [7] Aristizabal, A.J., Arredondo, C.A., Hernandez,
acquisition in photovoltaic systems”, Proceedings of J., Gordillo, G., “Development of Equipment for
the 13th WSEAS international conference on Monitoring PV Power Plants, using Virtual
Circuits, Rodos, Greece, pages: 191-196 Year of Instrumentation”, Proceedings of 2006 IEEE 4th
Publication: 2009, ISBN ~ ISSN:1790-5117 , 978- World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy
960-474-096-3 Conversion, vol.2, pp.2367-2370
[4] N. Forero, J. Hernández, and G. Gordillo, “ [8] Koutrolis,E., Kalaitzakis, K., “Development of
Development of a monitoring system for a PV solar integrated data – acquisition system for renewable
plant”, in Energy Conversion and Management,Vol. energy sources system monitoring,, Proceedings of
47, Issues 15-16, September 2006, pp. 2329-2336 2003 Renewable Energy, vol.1, Issue-1, pp.139-152
[5] T. Zdanowicz, H. Roguszczak, “Design and [9] Benghanem, M., Maafi, A., “Data acquisition
application on autonomous data acquisition systems system for photovoltaic system performance
used as calibration and qualification tool in monitoring,, 1998 IEEE Transaction on
photovoltaics”, in Opto-Electronics Review, 8 (4), Instrumentation and Measurement, vol.47, pp.30-33
2000, pp.356-367 [10] Begovic, M., Ropp, M., Rohatgi, A., Durand,
[6] N. Ertugrul, LabVIEW for electric circuits, S., Rosenthal, A., “Monitoring and data acquisition
machines, drives and laboratories, Ed. Pretence Hall, for a large roof-monted photovoltaic array”,
New York, 2002 Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Engineering
New Century, 1997, vol.1, pp.298-300

ISSN: 1792-4227 142 ISBN: 978-960-474-198-4

View publication stats