International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology

Volume: 03, Issue No: 04, April 2017

ISSN: 2455-3778
http://www.ijmtst.com

Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using

Open Source IOT Platform Thingspeak and
Arduino
Jayaharsha Kandimalla1 | Dr.D.Ravi Kishore2
1,2Department of EEE, Godavari Institute of Engineering & Technology, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India.

To Cite this Article

Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore, “Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino”, International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology, Vol. 03, Issue 04,
2017, pp. 16-21.

ABSTRACT
Now a days renewable energy systems are becoming best way to generate electricity. With advancement
of technologies the cost of renewable energy equipments is going down globally encouraging large scale solar
photovoltaic installations. Major part of renewable energy is solar energy. Due to its decentralized nature it is
very difficult to monitor solar power plants with existing centralized SCADA(Supervisory Control And Data
Acquisition) systems. We developed a prototype for implementation of new cost effective methodology based
on IoT to monitor a solar photovoltaic plant for performance evaluation using open source tools and resources
like Arduino and Thingspeak. Thingspeak is a SaaS (Software as a Service ) platform which provides space
on Web to monitor our parameters. Thingspeak provides all services for free of cost. Which saves lot of
investment on Website designing and maintenance. We focussed on low cost system with easy interface so
that common people who installs roof top solar plants also monitors easily without depending on service
providing companies. This will facilitate preventive maintenance, fault detection, historical analysis of the
plant in addition to real time monitoring.

Copyright © 2017 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION intensity, voltage, Current, Power and the

Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a temperature are monitored.
source of electricity for small and medium-sized This system is designed using Arduino UNO
applications, from the calculator powered by a Controller. The light intensity is monitored using
single solar cell to remote homes powered by an LDR sensor, voltage by voltage divider principle,
an off-grid rooftop PV system. As the cost of solar Load Current is measured using ACS712 current
electricity has fallen, the number of Sensor. and temperature by temperature sensor
grid-connected solar PV systems has grown into LM35. The Analog Output from these sensors are
the millions and utility-scale solar power fed into the ADC Channel of Microcontroller. After
stations with hundreds of megawatts are being Calculation all these data are displayed on a 16X2
built. Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive, LCD interfaced to AVR micro controller
low-carbon technology to harness renewable The main aim is to facilitate common small scale
energy from the Sun. The aim of this system is to installations with cost effective and reliable
measure solar panel parameters through multiple monitoring system, with access from any where in
sensor data acquisition. In this paper a solar panel the world. So that it drives all people to use this
is used which keeps monitoring the sunlight. Here monitoring system so that their maintenance
different parameters of the solar panel like the light expenses are reduced significantly. And also

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 Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore : Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino
recognizes dust and failures of panels due to for collaborating with web services, social network
different problem. And this causes timely and other APIs. We will consider each of these
maintenance and enhances power output from features in detail below. ThingSpeak was originally
plant. Finally saves money for plant installers and launched by ioBridge in 2010 as a service in
saves lot of energy losses due to dust and support of IoT applications.
temperatures and soiling of panels ThingSpeak is an application platform for the
Internet of Things. ThingSpeak allows you to build
II. INTERNET OF THINGS an application around data collected by
The Internet of things (IoT) is interconnection of sensors. Features of ThingSpeak include: real-time
all machines, living things and non living things data collection, data processing, visualizations,
that are embedded with Sensors, actuators, apps, and plugins. At the heart of ThingSpeak is a
electronics, software and network ThingSpeak Channel. A channel is where you send
connectivity and the ability to transfer data over a your data to be stored. Each channel includes 8
network without requiring human-to-human or fields for any type of data, 3 location fields, and 1
human-to-computer interaction. The IoT allows status field. Once you have a ThingSpeak Channel
objects to be sensed or controlled remotely across you can publish data to the channel, have
existing network infrastructure, creating ThingSpeak process the data, and then have your
opportunities for more direct integration of the application retrieve the data. 8 fields for storing
physical world into computer-based systems, and data of any type - These can be used to store the
resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and data from a sensor or from an embedded device. 3
economic benefit in addition to reduced human location fields - Can be used to store the latitude,
intervention. When IoT is augmented with sensors longitude and the elevation. These are very useful
and actuators, the technology becomes an instance for tracking a moving device. 1 status field - A short
of the more general class of cyber-physical message to describe the data stored in the channel.
systems, which also encompasses technologies Another monitoring is through LCD display.
such as smart grids, virtual power plants, smart LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an
homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities. electronic display module and find a wide range of
Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its applications. A 16x2 LCD display is very basic
embedded computing system but is able to module and is very commonly used in various
interoperate within the devices and circuits. These modules are preferred
existing Internet infrastructure. The major part of over seven segments and other multi segment
IoT is HMI (Human Machine Interface ). HMI LEDs. The reasons being: LCDs are economical;
The user interface (UI), in the industrial easily programmable; have no limitation of
design field of human–computer interaction, is the displaying special & even custom characters
space where interactions between humans and (unlike in seven segments), animations and so on.
machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to In our model it is also used to directly display
allow effective operation and control of the machine parameters at plant control panel.
from the human end, whilst the machine
simultaneously feeds back information that aids IV. METHODOLOGY AND PROTOTYPING
the operators' decision-making process. A. Block Diagram
interactive aspects of computer operating systems,
hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls,
and process controls are best examples if Human
Machine Interaction. Our aim is to monitor power
plant. It needs a Interface, Here we are considering
Thingspeak as Interface because of its dedicated
advantages, simplicity and free service.
III. THINGSPEAK - OPEN SOURCE IOT
PLATFORM
ThingSpeak is a platform providing various
services exclusively targeted for building IoT
applications. It offers the capabilities of real-time
data collection, visualizing the collected data in the
form of charts, ability to create plugins and apps Fig. Block Diagram

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 Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore : Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino
B. ARDUINO UNO
Arduino is an open-source computer hardware
and software company, project and user
community that designs and manufactures kits for
building digital devices and interactive objects that
can sense and control the physical world.Arduino
boards may be purchased preassembled, or as
do-it-yourself kits, the Arduino project provides an
integrated development environment (IDE) based Fig. ACS Current sensor
on a programming language named Processing,
which also supports the languages C and C++. The Direct current input,
Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on unipolar, with a unipolar output, which duplicates
the ATmega328. It has 14 digital input/output pins the wave shape of the sensed current
(of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog digital output, which switches when the sensed
inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB current exceeds a certain threshold ACS712
connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a current sensor operates from 5V and outputs
reset button. analog voltage proportional to current measured on
C. ESP8266 WIFI MODULE the sensing terminals. You can simple use a
microcontroller ADC to read the values. Provides
The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi chip with full
up to 3000 VRMS galvanic isolation. The
TCP/IP stack and MCU (Micro Controller
low-profile, small form factor packages are ideal for
Unit) capability produced by Shanghai-based
reducing PCB area over sense resistor op-amp or
Chinese manufacturer, Espressif Systems.
bulky current transformer configurations. The low
The chip first came to the attention of resistance internal conductor allows for sensing up
western makers in August 2014 with the ESP-01 to 20 A continuous current. Providing typical
module, made by a third-party manufacturer, output error of 1%.
AI-Thinker. This small module allows
microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and B. LDR – Light Dependent Resistor
make simple TCP/IP connections A photoresistor or light-dependent resistor (LDR)
using Hayes-style commands. However, at the time or photocell is a light-controlled variable resistor.
there was almost no English-language The resistance of a photoresistor decreases with
documentation on the chip and the commands it increasing incident light intensity; in other words,
accepted. The very low price and the fact that it exhibits photoconductivity. A photoresistor can
there were very few external components on the be applied in light-sensitive detector circuits, and
module which suggests that it could eventually be light- and dark-activated switching circuits. LDR’s
very inexpensive in volume, attracted many are light dependent devices whose resistance
hackers to explore the module, chip, and the decreases when light falls on them and increases in
software on it, as well as to translate the Chinese the dark. When a light dependent resistor is kept in
documentation. dark, its resistance is very high.. So to know the
light intensity level at solar power plant we are
V. SENSORS connecting this LDR by providing constant voltage
A. ACS712 Current Sensor through Arduino pins.
A current sensor is a device that detects electric
current (AC or DC) in a wire, and generates a signal C. LM35
proportional to it. The generated signal could be LM35 is a precision IC temperature sensor with its
analog voltage or current or even digital output. It output proportional to the temperature (in oC). The
can be then utilized to display the measured sensor circuitry is sealed and therefore it is not
current in an ammeter or can be stored for further subjected to oxidation and other processes. With
analysis in a data acquisition system or can be LM35, temperature can be measured more
utilized for control purpose. accurately than with a Thermistor. It also possess
low self heating and does not cause more than 0.1
oC temperature rise in still air. The operating
temperature range is from -55°C to 150°C. The

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 Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore : Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino
output voltage varies by 10mV in response to every Potentiometers, Voltage regulators, resistors and
oC rise/fall in ambient temperature, i.e., its scale diodes are used to give needed voltages to different
factor is 0.01V/ oC. It is connected to the Arduino components and also gives protection to device. As
board. all these are small electronic components all need
very less power and DC voltages ranging from 3
D. Voltage Divider Circuit
Volts to 12 Volts. We can manually switch power
A voltage divider (also known as a potential
sources between solar panel and battery. We can
divider) is a passive linear circuit that produces an
monitor it using Thingspeak from anywhere and if
output voltage (Vout) that is a fraction of its input
any network problem arises then also we can see
voltage (Vin). Voltage division is the result of
all parameters in LCD display. power consumed by
distributing the input voltage among the
the system to monitor power plant is very less
components of the divider. A simple example of a
compared to production. We keep voltage
voltage divider is two resistors connected in series,
regulators and potentiometers to give stable
with the input voltage applied across the resistor
voltages to all electronics components. Connected
pair and the output voltage emerging from the
resistors to limit the voltages to safeguard all
connection between them. By using appropriate
components.
resistors we can get Vout as fraction of Vin and
connecting across the panel terminal we can sense VII. MONITORING
the voltage of panel or power plant.

VI. EXECUTION & WORKING

This is web interface in which all parameters are

Figure: Monitoring system hardware assembly displayed. By opening this website we can monitor
When we switch on the system first Arduino and our power plant. These parameters are visualized
other components gets power from solar panel. using bar graphs or tables or histograms.
Battery connected to solar panel is also charged as
charging circuit will control the voltage. ESP8266
WIFI MODULE gets power and search for wifi
network and connects to it. Three sensors Current
sensor, LM 35 temperature sensor, LDR senses
parameters and Voltage dividing circuit gives
voltage values of panel to Arduino board. There
data is processed and power is calculated As
product of voltage and current and all five
parameters Current, voltage, power, light,
temperature are sent LCD display and also sent to
This is picture of individual field. This field shows
Thingspeak server through Wifi. Same will be
temperature versus date graph. LM 35 will sense
repeated for every 15 seconds. Thingspeak will
this temperature. Fed to this channel for every 15
show this data in form of graph as we can easily
seconds.
observe trends and values. When ever panel power
is not sufficient or zero, then bettery will provide
power to all circuits including Arduino.

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 Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore : Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino
Here we can find three location channels which we
can show the plant location with longitude and
latitudes. Here our plant is shown on roof of our
college.

VIII. CONCLUSION
With this paper we made an attempt to solve the
problem of monitoring of solar power plants that
users are facing today. For this purpose we used
the tools of newer technologies. We applied the
concepts of IoT and tried to monitor solar panel
This graph is LDR values versus date. This will parameters and other parameters related to solar
show level of sun light intensity at solar power power plant operation and maintenance with the
plant. help of IoT and Thingspeak open source IoT
platform. Our low cost monitoring device has lot of
scope because monitoring and maintenance plays
key role in solar power plants. Appropriate
monitoring improves efficiency of plant and
operating conditions. It has some disadvantages
like loss of privacy and cyber security and also this
project requires Internet connectivity as well. This
may not be available at all conditions and server
may breakdown sometimes. Open source platforms
may not be good for large scale plants monitoring.
However it is very useful for small installations and
This is voltage curve. Voltage of power plant or remote location plants. A provision of advance
panel versus date. This is sensed using voltage remotely manage the Solar PV plants of various
divider circuit. In the same way Current and power operations like remote shutdown, remote
also monitored. management is to be incorporate with this system
later. For machine learning algorithms
implementation reliable data is obtained. Real time
data is readily available to study the load patterns
and power generation patterns. Power system
scheduling becomes easy and load predictions will
be most accurate. This will also facilitate preventive
maintenance, fault detection, historical analysis of
the plant in addition to real time monitoring.

In this data is not only shown directly. We can

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 Jayaharsha Kandimalla and Dr.D.Ravi Kishore : Web Based Monitoring of Solar Power Plant Using Open Source IOT
Platform Thingspeak and Arduino
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