Integrated PV Performance Monitoring System

The main aim of this research work is to design an accurate and reliable monitoring system to be integrated with solar electricity generating system. The amount of solar energy received on the surface of the earth varies due to meteorological conditions and apparent trajectory of the sun. Due to this, the availability of sunlight is an average of 5-6 hours per day throughout the year in Malaysia. The performance monitoring system is required to ensure that the PV based solar electricity generating system is operating at an optimum level. The PV monitoring system is able to measure all the important parameters that determine an optimum performance. The measured values are recorded continuously, as the data acquisition system is connected to a computer, and data is stored at fixed intervals. The hardware is fully supported by software designed to give full flexibility in terms of data retrieval and processing. The data can be locally used and can be transmitted via internet for monitoring purposes. The data that appears directly on the local monitoring system is displayed via graphical user interface that was created by using Visualbasic.net. The Apache software was used to retrieve data from the internet. The transmitted data received by the remote terminal can be viewed by using any internet browser.