Control and communication for smart photovoltaic arrays

Abstract

Decarbonization of energy generation is required to address the urgent need to combat climate change and meet the Paris Agreement targets. Photovoltaic Systems (PVS) are a major contributor to this solution, and they are expected to grow significantly faster than any other renewable-energy technology in the coming years due to their appealing features. This paper discusses the development of a two-way communication protocol between two transceivers and a custom-designed communication board installed on each PV array. With this configuration, it is possible to transmit the measurements of each PV cell in the array to a data recording and monitoring service. Additionally, the application can customize the operation of the strings that make up the array, by broadcasting special commands to them. A prototype experimental setup was constructed in order to test the communication between the PV array communication board and the uplink/downlink transceivers. The experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed communication protocol between the Electronics Interface System (EIS) and the Smart PV array since the communication protocol meets the specification for transmitting the information from 1000 smart PV cells within one minute, as well as the strict timing requirements by the protocol for transmitting the parameters to the PV strings.