Remote Monitoring System for Solar Inverters

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2018 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2018, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 6.171 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1041
REMOTE MONITORING SYSTEM FOR SOLAR INVERTERS
Pranita Mor1, Ashlesha Ithape1, Prof.(Dr)Vijay Gaikwad2,Prof.Milind Rane2,Vikrant Bhalerao3
1 Electronics Department, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology
2 Professor of Electronics Department, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology
3 Aarcchor Innovations Pvt. Ltd
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Abstract - A traditional power management systemrequires
a third-party technician, whenever there is a need to perform
a hard reboot arises. These services can cost in terms of
money, labor and time. A remote monitoring system
diminishes dependency on maintenance, third-party services,
facilitating cost-effective lights-outoperationatremoteoffices
and branch locations and shortens the mean time torefurbish.
This system consists of microcontroller based monitoring
system which monitors the parameters of solar inverter
continuously. These real time parameters of solar inverter
uploaded on a server through GSM module. Employing this
system can monitor solar inverter 24x7 and from anywherein
the world. This paper deals with the Remote Monitoring
System for power back up system which is controlled by
dsPIC33EP32MC202 controller and data is monitored on
server.
Key Words: Remote Monitoring System (RMS), solar
inverter, dsPIC33EP32MC202 controller, GSM SIM800
1. Introduction
The consumption of energy on tremendously large scale is
made all over the world for numerous reasons possible.
From household to industries, every appliance available
requires energy for it to function and thisEnergyisprimarily
obtained from Non-Renewable Energy sources. Since the
ages this sources are utilized almost completely and at
present they are on the verge of depletion. Hence it has
become extremely important to find the alternate source of
energy. Solar energy is widely available throughout the
world and can contribute to minimize the dependence on
energy imports. In 90 minutes, an adequate amount of
sunlight strikes the earth to supply the entireplanet'senergy
requirements for one year. It also eliminates the hazards
caused by Non-Renewable Energy sources as it entails no
greenhouse gas emissions during operation and does not
emit other pollutants. Solar has many benefits like system-
friendly consumption, improved operating strategies, like
advanced renewable energy forecasting and enhanced
scheduling of power plants and also investment in added
flexible resources.
Recently solar PV plants are being installed all over the
world every day to generate large amount of energy from
them. Hence, there is an increasing necessity to obtain the
optimum results from solar PV for better advancements.
There are many ways in which one can utilize the energy
generated from PV panels. One of the methods is to use it as
an input power source to the inverters. As a result, solar
inverters are developed on large scale and are being
commercialized all over the world. In industries solar
invertersare installed in enormousnumbersand in orderto
ensure that solar inverters provide the optimum results,
they must be monitored and built. But it gets very difficult
and time overriding task to scrutinize all of them manually.
Hence, to reduce the time and complexity required to
monitor them remote monitoring systems are implemented.
It also makes sure that these systems are monitoredwithout
any corporal intervention, and also reduces the chance of
their failure to the greater extent. Thusthis paper dealswith
the implementation of optimal, economical and reliable
Remote Monitoring system which can be used not only for
solar inverters but also for other types of inverters.
2. Remote Monitoring Systems
Remote Monitoring System (RMS) is principally designed to
communicate with the devices in this technological world
remotely. Many systems like Smart grids, Positive train
control, Structural health monitoring, Pipeline sensors,
Patient monitoring, Desktop/server monitoring requires
monitoringon regular basis. Such systemscan bemonitored
and controlled remotely using RMS. These systems provide
onsite statusinformation of the devices to RMS whichcanbe
monitored remotely at anytime from every ingredient ofthe
world. This paper specifically deals with the remote
monitoring and control of solar inverter.
Fig1: Block diagram of RMS
Information such as voltage, current and power is supplied
by the solar inverter to the black box (Remote monitoring
system) through UART communication (RS232). The data

collected by RMS is then uploaded on the web server. This
data can be accessed by anyone at any part of the world.
The components in the Remote Monitoring System are
explained below:
2.1 dsPIC33EP32MC202
Microchip’s dsPIC33E family of digital signal controllers
(DSCs) features a 70 MIPS dsPIC DSC core with integrated
DSP and enhanced on-chip peripherals. These DSCsfacilitate
the design of high-performance, precision motor control
systems that are more energy competent, quieter in
operation, have a great range and extended life. These
devices are also ideal for high-performance generalpurpose
applications. It has following features:
1. Operating conditions are (3.0V to 3.6V, -40C to +85C,
DC to 70 MIPS) and (3.0V to 3.6V, -40C to +125C, DC to
60 MIPS).
2. It has 16-bit CPU.
3. Code efficient architecture(C and Assembly).
4. Upto 8 MHz internal oscillator frequency.
5. 32 kb program memory and 4kb RAM.
6. 28 pin count with 21 I/O pins.
7. 2-UART, 2-I2C and 2-SPI Digital Communication
Peripherals
8. It comes with the special feature of peripheral pin
select which allows the user to utilize the pins
according to the user requirements.
Fig2: dsPIC33EP32MC202
2.2 EEPROM and I2C Protocol
RMS also consists of moduleslike24LC256 whichisexternal
EEPROM that can store upto 256kb of data into it. The PIC
controller controls the EEPROM through I2C protocol. I2C is
a master slave protocol. It means that devices connected to
I2C bus will be either master or slave. The master is the
device which initiates communication and it drives clock
(SCL) line. Slaves are the devices which respond to master
and it cannot initiate a communication. Themastersendsthe
address of slave + R/W bit first, then followed by other data.
R/W bit indicates whether the master wants to read data
from or write data to the slave. The PIC here acts as a master
device and controlsEEPROM which acts as a slave.Theread-
write operations are accomplished by sending a set of
control signals including the address and/or data bits. The
control signals must be accompanied with proper clock
signals. The Interfacing of I2C-EEPROM with PIC
microcontroller performsread,writeanderaseoperationsin
EEPROM and the corresponding values are displayed on
LCD.
2.3 RTC and I2C Protocol
RMS system uses DS1307, a real time clock (RTC) for real
time generation of data. It is necessary to get a data with the
time it was generated so that technician can know the exact
condition of the UPS systems. For this purpose real time
clock (RTC) is used to get the time and date. The DS1307
Serial Real-Time Clock is a low-power; full binary-coded
decimal (BCD) clock/calendar plus 56 bytes of NV SRAM.
Address and data are transferred serially via a 2-wire, bi-
directional bus. The clock/calendar provides seconds,
minutes, hours, day, date, month, and year information. The
end of the month date is automatically adjusted for months
with fewer than 31 days, including corrections for leap year.
The clock operates in either the 24-hour or 12-hour format
with AM/PM indicator. The controller designed controlsthe
RTC DS1307 device through I2C protocol. TheI2CController
here acts as a master device and controlsRTC whichactsasa
slave. The read operation is accomplished by sendingasetof
control signals including the address and/or data bits. The
control signals must be accompanied with proper clock
signals. Wiring up an I2C based RTC to the I2C port is
relatively simple. The RTC also makesthe software easier as
it takes care of all calendar functions; accounting for leap
years etc
As we saw, an EEPROM and RTC both are using I2C protocol
for communication with controller where they both are
controlled by same I2C bus. This uses single master multiple
slave I2C protocol.
2.4 LCD and SPI Protocol
SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) isa full duplex synchronous
serial communication interface used for short distance
communications. SPI devicescommunicate each otherusing
master slave architecture with a single master. SPI is called
as a 4-wire bus as it requires four wires for its
communication. Interfacing LCD with controller requires at
least 6 wires for communication. ButusingSPIProtocol,only
4 wires are required. When LCD is interfaced using SPI
protocol, shift register is used to convert the serial data to
parallel data. The data gets write onto shift register using
SPI. Shift register converts this data into parallel data and
provides it on its four output pins. This data is then given to
the LCD which displays it.

2.5 SD card and SPI Protocol
It has an additional option as SDCARD for storing the data
which can be used by a technician to store and access this
data later on.SD card is communicating with the controller
using SPI protocol. The SD cardshave a microcontroller that
showsits availability to the PIC microcontroller.ThePICsees
the SD card as an addressable sector on which read/write
functions are possible. Once the microcontroller is in theSPI
mode, communication between the master and the slave is
done via 4 pins viz. clock, chip select, data in and data out.
2.6 GSM Module
GSM (Global System for Mobile) / GPRS (General Packet
Radio Service) Modem is compatible with SIM900A, SIM900
and SIM800 modules. This modem is Quad-band and dual
band device which workson frequencies850MHz,900MHz,
1800 MHz and 1900MHz.This GSM/GPRS modem has
internal TCP/IP stack to enable user to connectwithinternet
through GPRS feature. It is suitable for SMS, Call as well as
Data transfer application.
• Bluetooth and FM features.
• Input voltage: 9V to 24V DC.
• Tunable antenna circuitry for both GSM and Bluetooth.
• Built in RS232 to TTL and vice versa logic converter
• Conﬁgurable baud rate from 9600-11500 through AT
command.
• DB9 connector provided for UART communication.
• Built in SIM card holder
Fig3: GSM Module
2.7 Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS)
SMPS produce a predetermined or controllable magnitude
dc voltage from the available form of input voltage (AC/DC).
RMS desires standard dc voltage of fixed magnitude and
well-regulated dc supply for proper operation. Similarly,
RMS also needs multiple output power supplies. For
example, 12V supply for GSM, 5V supply for MAX232,
24LC256, DS1307, LCD and 3.3V supply for dsPIC and SD
card. The output voltages from the SMPS have dissimilar
current ratings and different voltage regulation necessities.
Almost invariably the outputs from SMPS are isolated dc
voltages where the dc output is ohmically isolated from the
input supply. It also provides the ohmic isolation between 2
or more output which is considered necessary in RMS to
isolate dsPIC and MAX232. The input connection to SMPS is
taken from the standard utility power plug point(ac voltage
of 230V / 50Hz).
Fig4: SMPS Circuit
In RMS, the power supply is given to the board using Switch
mode power supply (SMPS) which converts 230V AC to DC
voltages. SMPS offer three output voltages viz. 5V, 9V and
12V. As EEPROM, RTC and LCD modules entail 5V supply
they are directly from SMPS. 9V supply is regulated to 5V
and this fixed voltage is then fed to the MAX232 IC which is
isolated from the microcontroller for the purpose of
protection. This device uses DSPIC microcontroller for its
operation which is 32bit PIC.
3. MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment
(IDE)
MPLAB X IDE is a software program that runs on a personal
desktop to broaden applications for Microchip MCU’s and
digital signal controllers. It provides a single integrated
environment to develop code for applications of embedded
microcontrollers. MPLABX C8 is the environment forproject
development and for all toolsneeded to build an application
of PIC controllers. This engrosses understanding the basic
structure of a project in C and Assembler -coded sourcefiles,
along with the basic operation of the C-Compiler,Assembler

and Linker. It maintain all 8-bit (PIC10, PIC12,PIC16,PIC18),
16-bit (PIC24) and 32-bit (PIC32 and PIC32C)
microcontrollers and 16-bit (DSPIC30 and DSPIC33) digital
signal controllers (DSC’s).
4. Working
When device initiate, power is functional and the
microcontroller goes through some configuration and
initialization functions. The dsPIC acquire data of different
parameters from UPS system throughout serial
communication with UPS. RS232 is used for serial
communication between dsPIC and UPS system. Lcd is
initialized in 4bit mode using shift register (74HC595).
DsPIC sends the data serially to shift register using bit
banging method which converts that serial data intoparallel
data which is then displayed on LCD. Real time clock is
interfaced with dsPIC using Inter Integrated Circuit(I2C)
protocol which generates real time and date. This real time
and date along with data from UPS system is stored in
EEPROM. The external EEPROM is interfaced with dsPIC
using I2C protocol. The controller then fling this data from
EEPROM to GSM module. The GSM module which is serially
linked to dsPIC provides the internet connectivity.Usingthis
internet connectivity data is uploaded on to the web server.
dsPIC sends this data to the SD card using SPI protocol . SD
card stores this data in its memory. It can be detached from
the device and can be connected to computer using memory
card reader. The data stored in it can be accessed anytime
later and can be saved in the PC/mobile.
Fig5: Flow of Project
5. Results
Remote monitoring system is displaying ouput parameters
of solar inverter on LCD display. Following figure shows the
output parameters of solar inverter on LCD display of RMS
system.
Fig6: Hardware setup
6. Conclusions
The statusof the solar inverter can be monitoredeasilyfrom
any point of presence. The software provides values of all
parameters available in the solar inverter. Remote
monitoring reducesthe equipment'sdowntime,outagesand
losses, and shortens the mean time to repair. Reduces
dependency on maintenance staff and third-party services,
facilitating cost-effective "lights-out" operations at remote
offices and branch locations. Performs remote hardware
settings without attending to the systems physically by
maintenance personnel.
7. Future Scope
1) It is possible to build RMS for other systems like UPS
systems, power inverters, hybrid inverters, etc.
2) In future it is possible to not only monitor but also control
these systems using RMS by modifying the circuitry for that
purpose.
3) UPS can be build in such a way that RMS can be installed
itself in the system and will not be a separate part.
4) GSM can be used to send SMS to the technician whenever
there is failure in the systems so that they get notiﬁed about
it and can take immediate actions.
5) it is possible to use GSM to E-MAIL the ﬁle in which datais
stored using SMTP protocol.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The internship opportunity we had at Aarcchor Innovations
Pvt. Ltd. was a big opportunity for learning and professional
development. We would like to use this opportunity to
express our deepest gratitude and special thanks to the
director Atul Gupta. We are immensely glad to thankVikrant
Bhalerao (Senior Design Manager) for incessantlyguidingus
and updating us to comprehend the latest technology.
We would also like to thank Vishwakarma Institute of
Technology, Pune for providing a good platform of learning
and Dr. R. Jalnekar for intercalating a concept of semester
long internship. Also it was not possible without the
guidance of Head of Electronics Department Prof. Dr. Vijay
Gaikwad, his continuous motivation has made us work
consistently. Our thanks and appreciation also goes to our
college guide Prof. Milind Rane for their carefulandprecious
guidance which were extremely valuable for this internship
as well as project.
REFERENCES
[1] International Journal of ComputerApplications,Designof
Remote Monitoring and Control System with Automatic
Irrigation System using GSM Bluetooth, edited by Purnima,
S.R.N. Reddy, PhD, Volume 47 No.12, June 2012.
[2] Newnes publications, Advanced PIC Microcontroller
Projects in C, edited by Dogan Ibrahim, London,2007.
[3] Microchip Technology Inc, 256K I2C CMOS Serial
EEPROM, 24AA256/24LC256/24FC256, DS21203M,2010.
[4] Datasheet of microcontroller
<http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/dsPIC33EP
32MC202>
[5] Maxim Integrated, 64 x 8, Serial, I2C Real-Time Clock,
DS1307, REV: 3/15
[6] EE IIT, Kharagpur, Module 3 DC to DC Converters,Lesson
21 Introduction to Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS)
Circuits, L21(DP)(PE)((EE)NPTEL), version 2

Remote Monitoring System for Solar Inverters

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