Democratization of PV Micro-Generation System Monitoring Based on Narrowband-IoT

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Renewable Energy Systems
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• Modern power systems face challenges due to increasing microgeneration and prosumer integration.
• Limited data availability from these distributed energy resources complicates grid management.
• Affordable Internet of Things (IoT) technology presents an opportunity to improve data exchange.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and detail an IoT-based monitoring solution for photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption and microgeneration installations.
• To provide a tool for effective local self-consumption monitoring for prosumers.
• To address the information deficit in managing distributed energy resources.

Main Methods:

• Development of a hardware-level monitoring system for microgeneration.
• Detailed description of communication protocols and data packet structures.
• Field testing and analysis of the solution in real-world PV self-consumption installations.

Main Results:

• The proposed IoT solution demonstrates high reliability and accuracy in monitoring.
• Successful field tests were conducted in grid-connected PV self-consumption setups.
• The system provides valuable data for local energy management.

Conclusions:

• The developed IoT monitoring system is a viable and cost-effective solution for prosumers.
• It effectively enhances the management of local self-consumption and microgeneration.
• The solution offers a practical alternative to expensive professional monitoring platforms.