PV Monitoring System for a Water Pumping Scheme with a Lithium-Ion Battery Using Free Open-Source Software and IoT Technologies

Francisco José Gimeno-Sales, Salvador Orts-Grau, Alejandro Escribá-Aparisi, Pablo González-Altozano, Ibán Balbastre-Peralta, Camilo Itzame Martínez-Márquez, María Gasque and Salvador Seguí-Chilet
Additional contact information
Francisco José Gimeno-Sales: Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Salvador Orts-Grau: Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Alejandro Escribá-Aparisi: Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Pablo González-Altozano: Departamento de Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria (DIRA), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Ibán Balbastre-Peralta: Departamento de Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria (DIRA), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Camilo Itzame Martínez-Márquez: Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
María Gasque: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Salvador Seguí-Chilet: Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-28

Abstract: The development of photovoltaic (PV) technology is now a reality. The inclusion of lithium-ion batteries in grid-connected PV systems is growing, and the sharp drop in prices for these batteries will enable their use in applications such as PV water pumping schemes (PVWPS). A technical solution for the monitoring and tracking of PV systems is shown in this work, and a novel quasi-real-time monitoring system for a PVWPS with a Li-ion battery is proposed in which open-source Internet of Things (IoT) tools are used. The purpose of the monitoring system is to provide a useful tool for the operation, management, and development of these facilities. The experimental facility used to test the monitoring system includes a 2.4 kW pk photovoltaic field, a 3.6 kVA hybrid inverter, a 3.3 kWh/3 kW lithium-ion battery, a 2.2 kVA variable speed driver, and a 1.5 kW submersible pump. To address this study, data acquisition is performed using commercial hardware solutions that communicate using a Modbus-RTU protocol over an RS485 bus and open software. A Raspberry Pi is used in the data gateway stage, including a PM2 free open-source process manager to increase the robustness and reliability of the monitoring system. Data storage is performed in a server using InfluxDB for open-source database storage and Grafana as open-source data visualization software. Data processing is complemented with a configurable data exporter program that enables users to select and copy the data stored in InfluxDB. Excel or .csv files can be created that include the desired variables with a defined time interval and with the desired data granularity. Finally, the initial results of the monitoring system are presented, and the possible uses of the acquired data and potential users of the system are identified and described.

Keywords: quasi-real-time monitoring system; IoT technologies; free open-source software; on-line monitoring; solar water pumping systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10651/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10651/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10651-:d:465294

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().