Photovoltaic Training Course - Module 3.3 - Control system data management
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The document discusses control system data management for photovoltaic plant operations. It emphasizes the importance of monitoring key metrics like radiation, temperature, and energy production to maximize output and detect issues early. Remote monitoring systems help reduce costs but local staff are still needed for maintenance and repairs. Regular preventative maintenance is important to prevent failures for inverters, sun trackers, and other equipment to minimize downtime and optimize productivity of the solar plant.
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Photovoltaic Training Course - Module 3.3 - Control system data management
- 1. Photovoltaic Systems Training Plant Operation 3.3 CONTROL SYSTEM DATA MANAGEMENT www.leonardo-energy.org
- 2. The meter is the most important device The final device in the system Monitoring objective: To control and to maximize energy injection into the grid. References are needed: • Radiation • Temperature • Reference against other facilities, etc Inverter can help prevent future malfunctions Example: If the temperature is raised continuously, it could indicate: • A sporadic technical failure – requiring repair • A design failure – requiring redesign • A stop in energy production. Maximizing productivity Operational monitoring www.leonardo-energy.org
- 3. • To detect incidents as quickly as possible • To predict incidents & breakdowns • To resolve incidents & breakdowns • To alert staff in the plant Software and remote does not remove the need for local staff It is essential to have spare parts and equipment at the plant Operational key points www.leonardo-energy.org
- 4. Operational monitoring Example: Valdecarábanos Solar Plant. Spain www.leonardo-energy.org
- 5. Remote control systems Applications: Inverters, sun trackers, electrical protection, monitoring systems, and security systems But, meters are NEVER remotely controlled Benefits: 1. Save costs. 2. Meet possible legal requirements Electric Company may require remote control of the transformer’s isolation cells PV plants over a certain power capacity may be obliged to be attached to a generation control center Remote control is usually linked to the monitoring system
- 6. Maintenance types Corrective: to resolve incidents Preventive: to prevent incidents before they occur. Elements to maintain Inverter Suntracker Panels (eg, cleaning, replacement…) Maintenance Data www.leonardo-energy.org
- 7. Inverter maintenance Classification of failures: By Seriousness Warning: minor failures. Many warnings can be expected. Generally, not important Alarm: serious failures. They should be minimized. They are important, and could imply the plant stop By Origin Internal: from the inverter External: from the plant. • DC side: from the panels to the inverter. • AC side: from the inverter to the grid www.leonardo-energy.org
- 8. Inverter maintenance Typical incidents: Isolation failure (cable without enough protection) External failure: from the plant. Low DC Voltage: External failure: AC side problem (in the modules array) MPP Tracking failure External failure: a wrong configuration could produce a deviation from the MPPT Internal failure: Programming/Firmware problem Grid voltage or Frequency out-of-range External failure: from the inverter to the grid Temperature limit exceeded www.leonardo-energy.org
- 9. Suntracking maintenance Typical incidents: Orientation/Position failure • Out of synchronization with the sun • Remained in its protection state (against strong wind) Motor overvoltage failure Reducer breakdown Movement limitation sensor Movement limitation sensor fails to activate the stop signal www.leonardo-energy.org
Editor's Notes
- During the first session we will talk about the Control and Telecommunications system
- We have to know that the main objective of our monitoring system might be to optimize the productivity of our PV fac. For us, the most important device will be the meter because it is the last device in the system. It is the device that monitors all the energy that is produced and injected into the grid. So if we control that we are injecting the max energy into the grid we will have the max performance from the PV facility. We need different references from different devices if we are to judge whether we are producing as much energy as we might produce. The most typical references might be the radiation and the temperature. Other references can be our experience or reference facilities in the same area as ours. Once we know the meter is the most imp element to be monitored we need to know that the inverter can help us prevent future malfunctions. The meter does not tell us anything about the performance of the plant, only about the amount of energy being produced. But the inverter can give us warnings and messages confirming the state of the different devices in our solar PV fac. We have to diff between sporadic failures that have to be rectified as soon as possible and a design failure which is something that might be redesigned and modified in our pv facility. It is important to know that due to an inverter malfunction the plan could stop completely.
- The importance of control systems to the operation of a PV facility starts with the detection of incidents in real time, the the prediction of the cause of the problem and its resolution as ASAP. The Monitoring the inverter’s performance in particular is extremely important. And systems need to be in place to alert local staff and to help them rapidly identify the source of the problem. In order to do this alarms such as sirens systems that automatically send out text messages are needed. Local staff can never be replaced by software or remote control and it is essential that we have spare parts and equipment at the PV facility to solve incidents as fast as possible. The cost of purchasing and storing spare inverters should be taken into account when looking at the costs and benefits or fewer larger inverters or more smaller, and therefore cheaper, inverters.
- This slide maps a PV monitoring system at in the small town of Valdecarábanos to the south of Madrid in Spain. Green or yellow squares indicate the different meters in the solar plant. Yellow meters indicate at least 5% lower production than the produciton measured by green meters. An average production reading across all meters is used as an indicator of what individual panels should be producing. A yellow meter is usually an indicator that the sun tracker for that meter needs recalibration or repair. The slide is actually a view of the control panel for the monitoring system. The site is monitored remotely, with some possibilities for remote alteration of sun trackers based on the data uploaded to the internet from the site. This customized Windows-based software can also trigger notification of incidents or alerts where appropriate.
- Now we talk about the remote control system. The main reason to install this kind of system, is because of the legal requirements and also for us the main reason might be to save costs. With this type of system, we don’t need to go to the malfunctioning element to repair it. We can save time because the plant will produce again faster than without the remote control system. We also save on personnel as with the less staff the work can be done remotely. The main devices that can be done remotely controlled are the inverter, the sun trackers and the protections. Some other elements can be controlled remotely but may not improve the benefits form our PV fac: the monitoring system and the security system. It is important to notice that the meters can never be controlled remotely.
- IN a pv fac the main elements to maintain are the inverter, the sun tracker and the panels. The inverter is the main element to be maintained if there is not a sun tracker. And in the next slide we will see which incidents may happen in an inverter. The sun tracker has only to be maintained where used. We will also look at the main incidents in sun trackers. Panels need only some cleaning and maintenance once every three years depending on the area, as we said in the first webinar, and replacement where necessary. It is important to differentiate between two types of maintenance task, the corrective tasks that occur once an incident has already happened, and the preventive tasks done periodically to prevent possible incidents. During the slides we talked about the monitoring system and the routing to be done from the info from the monitoring system, we defined that with low performance and tasks to improve it these tasks might be added to the preventive maintenance tasks so they can be done periodically.
- In an inverter the main failures can be classified according to their seriousness or according to their origin. According to its seriousness we can distinguish between 2 types of failure, the warnings and the alarms. We only have to consider the alarms as they are important to be minimized, if because of an alarm if we don’t interact very fast the plant could be fully stopped. The warnings are not as important as the inverter will be sending us the whole time different warnings related to the different parameters of the solar plant. It is important to know that with an inverter we can get data from internal – data from the inverter - and also in the new inverters data that is external, that is data from the from the solar plant. This is very important in our monitoring system because we can get data on the DC side, so we can get data onenergy that is being produced by the different strings of panels and we can get data from the AC side, that is data on what goes from the inverter to the grid.
- The most common incidents in an inverter are isolation failure, that is failure from the plant; Low DC voltage which is also an external failure in the model’s array; The maximum point tracking system that can be both an external failure if we have a ground configuration in the panels that may produce a deviation from the max powerpoint tracking, or an internal failure in the configuration or ‘themeware? of our inverter. This is the most imporant failure that we can find in our inverter because as we said in the last webinar it is really important to get the max energy from our solar plant by improving the perofmrance of the max powerpoint tracking system. The last incicent it is imp to consider is the frequency out of range alarm, which is an ext failure tht is produced from the inverter to the grid.
- The most common failure in sun tracking systems is the orientation or positional failure – usually because the sun tracker is not synchronized with the position of the sun. It is important to have a system that checks periodically that the position of the sun tracker is synchronized with the sun. To have the position modification system remotely controlled eases this task considerably. High winds are a threat to sun tracker systems. Wind speeds need to be measured so that the system can be protected and the remote control system should be able to place the panels at a safe orientation while the winds blow and re-orientate the panels with the sun when it is safe to do so once more. Other issues to be detected include overvoltage. While a limited movement sensor enables the sun tracker to overpass positions where sunlight will not fall.