Measurement Data Acquisition System in Laboratory for Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

This paper presents laboratory for renewable energy sources equipped with measurement data acquisition system. The system is developed by the Laboratory for Renewable Energy Sources (RESLAB) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology Osijek, Croatia. Data acquisition system relies on specific hardware and software technologies incorporated into one system. It uses custom-based measuring hardware, strong communication protocols, automatic software processing mechanisms, web applications and server-side computation. Analysed system continuously measures electrical parameters acquired from photovoltaic (PV) technologies and meteorological parameters on the test site. Acquisition hardware consists of three main parts: data acquisition system of 5 PV modules made of different technologies; data acquisition system of 10 kWp PV system and data acquisition system of meteorological parameters. All measured data is stored in an extensive database. Stored data is organized and visualized on a dedicated web server. Measurement data acquisition system described in this paper represents unique, custom-developed and open-source data acquisition system used for long-term performance analysis of PVs and can be scaled and utilized for various research areas.