Supervisory data acquisition and performance analysis of a PV Array installation with data logger

Different photovoltaic (PV) technologies are being developed, tested and employed as small-scale on-site distributed generators for directly catering to the customer loads at the distribution voltage level. In this connection, extensive off-line and laboratory based research is also being performed for studying and comparing the PV technologies as well as for assessing their effectiveness for on-site power generation. This paper describes the performance evaluation and capacity augmentation of a laboratory-scale PV array installation at Brunel University, West London, UK, comprising a monocrystalline and a HIT PV array. The paper reports on the collection of on-line electrical and weather data through an IP-enabled data and utilisation of the data to evaluate the performance of the PV arrays under different solar irradiance conditions. It also describes the capacity augmentation process and testing and validating the improvement in array performance by comparing the power and energy outputs of the arrays before and after augmentation.