Background
The rapid increase in the penetration of RES is creating many problems to electric power systems, especially low-inertia, islanded grids 1. In periods of high PV penetration, the Cyprus system needs to curtail power generation from residential PV systems to ensure the security of the system and avoid congestion 2. This action leads to waste of renewable energy, loss of revenue for the residential customers, higher household electricity prices.
The main issues contributing to this problem are:
- Lack of proper monitoring on residential PV systems: This leads to inaccurate PV generation estimations, higher uncertainty, and higher RES curtailments.
- Lack of controllability in small PV installations: Inability of the system operators to control and disconnect PV systems at a lower granularity level.
Objectives
In this project, you have to develop a low-cost residential PV monitoring and control system that will provide better data for forecasting and control and allow the system operators to disconnect and reconnect small PV systems.
Deliverables
- A complete literature and market review including a comparison between different existing technologies for monitoring and control of rooftop PV systems.
- A complete design of an affordable PV monitoring and control device.
- A working prototype of a PV monitoring and control device.
- An centralized server-based solution for collecting and analyzing the software.
Student profile
- Good programming skills (microcontrollers, python, C/C++).
- Some electronics design background.
- Some signals processing and filtering background.
- Good background in electric power systems (minimum Power Systems I).
Before asking any questions, please check the FAQ.