3rd International Conference on Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences (ICETAS)

July 17-21 2018 Skopje Macedonia

New approaches for data monitoring, analysis and management of rooftop based
PV power plants
Remzi Yildirim1, Ilyas Çankaya1, Fahrettin Gökta!1, Abdullah Yildiz1, Bülent Ye!ilata1*
Abstract: In Turkey, regulation for permitting rooftop solar PV systems for electric generation in residential buildings
is underway. Such mini-scale PV power systems do not individually use an elaborated data monitoring and
management system. There will be critical need for data collection and management throughout many local plant points
by utility companies for asset and grid management. This study therefore deals for future opportunities and challenges
of rooftop PV power applications in Turkey. In this context, the state of the art for data collection from discrete mini
scale solar power plants and their integrated data management structures are discussed. As a result of the study,
potential road map of local/regional utility companies in Turkey for applicable data management structure and
software architecture is suggested.

Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV), Power Plant, Rooftop, Data Monitoring, Asset Management

1. INTRODUCTION capacity will be approved immediately if the application

The cumulative installed PV power in Turkey
has reached about 3420.7 MW at the end of 2017, with
a 310.8% growth compared to the previous year’s data
of 832.5 MW [1]. It is important to note that the
photovoltaic installations reached to the first 10 MW in
2012, the first 100 MW in 2015 and finally the first
1000 MW (or 1 GW) in 2017. This evolution is shown
in Fig. 1. Turkey registers an additional 522 MW of new
unlicensed PV capacity in first two months of 2018 [2],
and the total installed capacity has already passed 4 GW
line even before the first half of 2018, according to new
systematic data released by local grid operator, TEIAS
[3].
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Fig. 1. Evolution of installed PV power capacity in
Turkey
By the end of 2017, Turkish Energy Market
Regulatory Authority (EMRA) has published a draft net
metering regulation for rooftop PV installations with a
power range of 3 kW to 10 kW. Households in Turkey
will be able to produce solar energy by installing roof-
top and façade solar panels and therefore supply their
own electricity. According to the new legislation,
electricity distribution companies will handle the new
applications from the customers for the installation
procedures. The installations for up-to 3 kW of solar
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complies with the regulation. For the capacity above 3
kW and up to 10 kW, the distribution company can
reply depending on the availability of the transformer
capacity.
Following market feedback, the EMRA Decision
has been issued in January 2018 which covers roof and
facade installations and aims provide an expedited grid
connection process to eligible facilities [4]. Under the
new scheme, owners of residential rooftop PV systems
will be entitled to sell surplus power to the country’s
power distributors. The installed power of the power
plant to be constructed pursuant to the EMRA Decision
cannot exceed the installed power of its registered
consumption facility. Each consumption facility may be
subject to one power plant application and it is not
possible to merge more than one consumption facility
into a single consumption unit [5].
Solar Power Europe [6] projects that Turkey will
be among the top three EU countries with the new
capacity to be added between 2017-2021 term, owing
this to the latest developments in national regulations
and policies. Another critical and relevant projection
was very recently made by World Bank Group [7],
directly targeting RSPV market, also show significant
solar market growth potential in Turkey for the next
RSPV in Turkey was estimated at 3.9 GW, by using an
S-curve trajectory for the annual RSPV penetration.
Although there is very good market potential, such
mini-scale PV power systems do not individually use an
elaborated data monitoring and management system.
There will be critical need for data collection and
management throughout many local plant points by
utility companies for asset and grid management.
This study therefore deals for future
opportunities and challenges of rooftop PV power
applications in Turkey. In this context, the state of the
art for data collection from discrete mini scale solar
power plants and their integrated data management
structures are discussed. As a result of the study,
potential road map of local/regional utility companies in
Turkey for applicable data management structure and
software architecture is suggested.

2. DATA MONITORING SYSTEM
Solar plants have sensors along with a
Supervisory Control and Data Access (SCADA)
systems of varying degrees of sophistication. The
SCADA system collects data from sensors and stores it
locally. For example, data for plane irradiation, surface
temperature, string current and inverter output power
are collected. Such a system is depicted in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. A schematic representation of a SCADA data
monitoring system and its components (credit: [8]).
The overall data acquisition starts at the DC level
in a way that string combiner boxes designed for PV
installations have been built-in string probe units, which
measure the values of DC current voltage and power
made available through a serial RS485 port for
communication to the SCADA via ModBus. Some
remote terminal units (RTUs) are installed at the field
location that connects to multiple-string junction boxes
on the RS485 multi-drop loops.
At the AC level, inverters expose RS485 ports to
allow an easy connection. The native communication
drivers collect data from control boxes and RTUs with
time stamps for real-time processing, storage, alarming,
reporting and display. Both DC and AC side parameters,
status and diagnostics are continuously acquired. The
SCADA capabilities are further used in monitoring of
grid protection relays, energy meters, weather
monitoring station/sensors, low-tension and high-
tension control panels, DC switches, transformers, and
any devices capable of affecting plant production.
Nearly all monitoring systems are nowadays
Internet-based, providing installers remote access
through web portals. This enables centralized operations
to manage maintenance and service activities for
systems that are physically spread out. These portals can
provide quick verification of system performance based
on actual environmental conditions and also allow for
in-depth analysis of actual system performance versus
predicted performance.
3. PROPOSED APPROACHES FOR
PERFORMANCE AND GRID RELIAB!L!TY
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A comprehensive monitoring is important for
tracking yields at the plants minute by minute. The
decision for the installation of a Solar power plant
means that it is not only choosing an eco-friendly
technology but also a long-term source of income for
the investor. Therefore, to aid this goal the monitoring
systems should run uninterrupted at all the times.
Monitoring the generation /yields regularly provides
vital piece of information in advance when the system
performance is low or is likely to fail. Based on the
measures, preventive maintenance can be carried out to
enhance the performance and the health of the system or
the maintenance schedules judiciously planned.
On the other hand, RSPV plants for residential
use are relatively at small-scale, up to 10 kWp, and
therefore they are usually not accompanied with a
precise data monitoring and management system, due to
additional investment cost. This is an important
challenge since system owners do not immediately
realize if there is any fault in any system components,
resulting in less profit from selling electric to the grid.
The other challenge is that the grid reliability is in risk
due to increasing number of RSPV plants connected to
the same substation. We here propose two new
approaches for the Turkish RSPV market, which is just
under development phase, for respectively increasing
performance and grid reliabilities.
3.1. The solution for performance reliability for
immediate application
In operation of a RSPV system, it is important to
assess how much energy in theory the system can
produce according to location, orientation and plant
conversion efficiency. Employing a performance
monitoring system will allow accounting the amount of
energy produced by a system in real time. The
automatic comparison between the calculated and the
real production figures will give a precise indication of
the plant performance or plant health every minute or
less. To accomplish this, we propose here to use a
simple approach as schematically shown in Fig. 3.
The system here monitors and compares real PV
plant performance by means of a mathematical model
initialized at installation with plant design data: PV
panels' peak power, inverter specifications,
manufacturer-provided electric parameters, number of
strings, strings length, etc. The model is continuously
fed with local weather data, and it calculates in real time
the correct energy production at 100% plant capacity.
The automatic comparison between the calculated and
the real production figures gives a precise measure of
plant performance and plant health every minute or less.
Alerts signaling low system performance or equipment
alarms appear on the portal to direct attention to
potential issues. These alerts and alarms can also be sent
directly via email, text message or both, as specified by
the in-house monitoring system administrator.

Fig. 3. The proposed approach for monitoring and
assessment of a rooftop PV power system (credit: [9]).
A high density of solar panels can result in
unacceptably high and fluctuating voltages, an unstable
power supply, and an inability to export electricity to the
grid. This could result in restrictions being placed on the
amount of PV-based electricity connected to the grid. As
the power generated from solar panels is dependent on
light conditions, a quick change in these conditions (like
a cloud drifting in front of the sun) can result in a
dramatic change in the power generated. This can cause
the voltage to fluctuate, not only for the PV owner, but
for other users on the electricity network.
In order to solve this problem, we propose here a
relatively new and novel approach known as the Virtual
Power Plant (VPP). The VPP links dispersed rooftop
solar PV panels in a web-based network, to create a
single reliable energy supply, much like virtually
constructing a power station, as shown in Fig. 4. VPPs
are indeed designed to monitor and schedule a large
number of decentralized producers and consumers via
intelligent software [10]. A possible way to test the VPP
functionality is to interface its software with simulated
producers and consumers under various scenarios and it
is therefore specific to the region or country under
consideration.
Fig. 4. The philospy of using a virtual power plant for
multiple RSPVs (credit: [10]).
3.2. The solution for grid-reliability for future
applications
In the future, according to changing structure of
energy generation to low-carbon resource, VPPs can
flexibly designed such as the one given in Fig. 5. In this
model, local governments and grid operators can
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coordinate the output of independent solar arrays and
wind farms with hydropower, biogas, and other low-
carbon resources such as batteries and electrical vehicles,
thus simulating the output of a 24-hour power plant. This
model already works very efficiently in Europe,
specifically in Germany and Denmark [11.
Fig. 5. The vision of using virtual power plant for the
future’s intermittent energy management (credit for the
image: [12]).
4. CONLUDING REMARKS
Today monitoring and performance analysis of
solar PV plants has become extremely critical due to the
increasing cost of operation and maintenance as well as
reducing yield due to performance degradation during
the lifecycle of the plant equipment. This means that the
use of a monitoring system can become essential to
ensure high performance, low downtime and fault
detection of a solar PV power plant during the entire
lifecycle. This situation is certainly valid for RSPV’s
since their use has been dramatically increasing.
Although Turkey has just opened doors in terms of
completing necessary regulation tools, the same
obstacles can be faced.
We here propose two important approaches to
mitigate these possible obstacles. The first one is an
immediate solution is that a precise mathematical model
to predict generated power at any instant should be
compared with the power generated in the roof-top site
under consideration. The second one is a future solution
of that multiple RSPVs can be virtually connected into a
single VPP to increase grid reliability. We will develop a
real-time simulation platform for both proposed
solutions as future work.
REFERENCES
[1] 2018 Snapshot of Global Photovoltaic Markets,
Report IEA PVPS T1-33:2018.
[2] https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/03/08/turkey-
registers-522-mw-of-new-unlicensed-pv-capacity-
in-first-two-months-of-2018/ , access date: March
15, 2018.
[3] https://www.teias.gov.tr , access date: March 11,
2018.
[4] http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2018/01/2018
0117-4.htm, access date: May 15, 2018.
[5] http://www.epdk.org.tr/Detay/Icerik/3-0-
92/elektriklisanssiz-uretim: access date May 30,
2018.
[6] Global Market Outlook 2018-2022,
http://www.solarpowereurope.org/global-market-
outlook-2018-2022/, access date: May 01, 2018.
[7] World bank Group, Energy and Extractives Global
Practice Group, Europe and Central Asia Region
(ECA), Turkey: Rooftop Solar Market Assessment
Summary Note, February 2018.
[8] http://www.versoley.com/en/pv-systems/monitoring-
control, access date: Jan. 21, 2018.
[9] D. Riley and J. Johnson, “Photovoltaic prognostics and
heath management using learning algorithms” 38th
IEEE PVSC, Austin, TX, 5 June, 2012.
[10] http://www.ibexmag.com/international-news/worlds-
largest-virtual-power-plant-australia/, access date: June
01, 2018.
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[11] https://www.greenbiz.com/article/new-green-grid-
utilities-deploy-virtual-power-plants, access date: June
01, 2018.
[12] Aaron Zurborg, “Unlocking Customer Value: The
Virtual Power Plant”, World Power Magazine, pp: 1-
5, 2010.
Authors addresses
1
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Faculty of
Engineering and Natural Sciences, Ankara/Turkey
Contact person
*
Bulent Yesilata, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University,
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Energy
Systems Engineering Department, Ankara/Turkey.
E-mail: byesilata@yahoo.com,