Development of a Software Solution for Solar-PV Power Systems Sizing and Monitoring

Year 2013, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 698 - 706, 01.09.2013

İshioma Ani Odigwe Chidiebere Nnadi Ayoade Felix Agbetuyi Ajibola Ayokunle Awelewa Francis Idachaba

Abstract

Power systems sizing and monitoring are very important design components in determining the overall performance of solar-photovoltaic (PV) systems. These design components represent the pre-installation and post-installation stages of solar-PV systems planning respectively, and paying adequate attention to them can go a long way to increasing the working life of solar-PV system installations. The SolarHelper developed in this work is a small software solution package that monitors and records vital system variables that will give the state and performance of an existing solar-PV installation at any given time; and it is able to accurately provide a simulated output of the required battery storage capacity, and PV array size based on load demands.

Keywords

Interfacing; microcontroller; monitoring; sizing; software solution package; solar-PV system

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