Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering

Volume 3 Issue 1

Solar Power Monitoring System Using IOT

Nehali Datar*, Sakshi Bhoyar, Ashar Khan, Saurabh Dekapurwar,
Harshada Wankhede, Shraddha Sonone, Viraj Bapat, Nitin K. Dhote
Department of Electrical Engineering, St. Vincent Pallotti College of Engineering
&Technology, Nagpur, India
*Corresponding Author
E-Mail Id: nehalidatar99@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The power generated from solar panel is to be efficiently monitored and managed to reduce
the generation losses in solar power generation. Generally, we use solar plants to build in
the locations where people can’t reach on daily basis so this approach will help them to
virtually control their systems from faraway places. It monitors the panel load by using the
IoT technologies and the data which are received from the panels are send to the cloud
through the internet for the future use. It also helps the remote users to monitor the solar
power plant. The user can get the information about the current and previous average
parameter like voltage, temperature and current. This will facilitate the fault detection and
preventive maintenance of solar. In this paper we use the application Internet of thing (IOT)
to control and monitor the solar power (renewable energy). This system is designed to solve
the problem occur in solar power generation like management problem, maintenance and to
reduce the time of repair. Using this technology, the cost of solar energy (renewable energy)
generation reduces. This also provide real time information to the user help to monitor the
system. The main purpose of this paper is that the solar panel can collect or capture
maximum solar radiation and maintain the system more reliably and efficiently.

Keywords: Renewable energy, IoT, cloud, remote monitoring, solar panels

INTRODUCTION in the world by means of wireless sensor

The Internet of things (IOT) is an network. Some of the devices, buildings,
emerging technology that efficiently and vehicles and other objects embedded with
effectively improving our daily life the software, sensors, electronics and
activities. It reduces our cost of living by network connectivity enables these objects
automating the manual processes. It to collect and exchange the data. This IoT
integrates the physical objects and devices (Internet of Things) is achieved by
via internet for synchronized wireless sensor networks, 2G/3G/4G
communication. Here, solar panels and networks, GSM, GPRS, RFID, WI-FI,
solar plants are used for producing GPS, microcontroller, microprocessor,
electricity in natural manner with the help etc.[10,11] Empowering advancements for
of sun light. These systems are manually the Internet of Things are considered and
operated by humans. So, there is a need of gathered.[7,9] They are classified as
efficient approach which automatically follows:
control and monitor the current, voltage • Advance that empower “things” to
and other parameters of solar systems and accept contextual information.
provides real time statistics to users. • Advance that empower “things” to
Simply, the Internet of things means the process the relevant data, and
network of Physical objects. This provides • Innovation to enhance security and
us the connection of each and every object protection.

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 Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering
Volume 3 Issue 1

Accepting the information and processing efficiency of the system. This system
that relevant data can provide an mainly consists of embedded system
understanding which is needed to build the ESP32 module network. In proposed
“intelligence” into “things”. This is the system, host network and embedded
highlighted feature which differentiates system forms a core of IOT system. In this
IOT from standard internet. The system network we used an ESP32 module to
consists of a controller incorporated with connect Solar panels to the Internet via
ESP32 Module, voltage sensor and current cloud computing. The proposed system is
sensor. The ESP32 Module is a controller used for monitoring of solar energy using
integrated with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth IoT.[4,5] Arduino is a micro controller
support. The sensors check the predefined which is used to read the sensor values.
conditions that are programmed and Current sensor and voltage divider are
detects the output voltage and current. The connected to the Arduino. Arduino is
module alerts to the users or the connected to ESP32 module through USB
maintenance in charge and uses the things cable. ESP32 module is working as a
speak cloud to show the received data server. The data from the Arduino is
from sensor and GUI to display. By using display on the web page through ESP32.
the IoT we can enable the machine to The system consists of current sensors,
machine communication M2M or device voltage sensors, voltage regulator, cloud
to device communication without human setup, measurement and other sensors.
intervention. This also includes microcontroller-based
data processing of data acquired from the
METHODOLOGY sensors. Solar power plant monitoring will
The main objective of this research is to enhance future decision-making process
design and implement a Smart Remote for large scale solar power plant and grid
monitoring system using IOT that is integration of such plants. Microcontroller
capable of monitoring the Solar power plays a very essential role in this process
conditioning unit which consist of solar to intermediate between input modules and
charge controller and provides the facility output modules.[8] Once the system is
to charge the battery bank either through successfully designed and simulated on the
solar or grid and stores data in the cloud software it will be ready for fabrication
database through an easy manageable web and the online control system using IOT
interface (firebase). This will decrease the will be manufactured.
maintenance cost and will increase the

Fig. 1: Block Representation.

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 Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering
Volume 3 Issue 1

PROPOSED WORK Voltage regulator

System Design To step down the voltage of solar panel
The solar panel voltage and current is from 12V to 5V as all the components
monitored with the help of sensors like works on 3V-5V. It also helps for over
current sensor and voltage sensor. The current and voltage protection.
current sensor gives the value of current
flowing through the solar panel and the Voltage divider
voltage sensor gives the value of voltage Normally voltage of 5V is measured by
appear across the solar panel. Both the Arduino channel so, to measure the
sensor’s data is given to ESP32 module voltage more than 5V Voltage Divider is
which is combination of controller and wi- used.
fi module.
Cloud setup
This module is programmed with the help Cloud computing is the delivery of
of Arduino IDE software. First ESP32 computing services—including servers,
works as a microcontroller and fetch the storage, databases, networking, software,
current sensor and voltage sensor output analytics, and intelligence—over the
data through serial ports. This data is then Internet to offer faster innovation, flexible
displayed on the LCD display in the form resources, and economies of scale.[3]
of voltage, current and power value. Now
ESP32 works as a wi-fi module. First this Current sensor
ESP32 connect with the Internet through ACS 712 current Sensor of range 20A is
wi-fi then ESP32 send the data available used to measure the current.
on the serial to the cloud with the help of
MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry LCD screen
Transport) protocol. This data is It is used to display the monitored values
transferred to the cloud and stored in cloud of Voltage, current and power in Watt.
platform. We are using AWS (Amazon
web services) as a cloud platform and with Voltage sensors
the help of API we can access the data A voltage sensor is a sensor is used to
stored in AWS through internet. calculate and monitor the amount of
voltage in an object. Voltage sensors can
Solar panel determine both the AC voltage or DC
Solar panel is of 12V. Solar panels are voltage level.
those devices which are used to absorb the
sun rays and convert them into electricity. Main switch and load switch
A solar panel is actually a collection of To ON/OFF the system and load
solar radiations, which can be used to respectively.
generate electricity through photovoltaic
effect.[1,2] Load
Incandescent bulb of 12V, 400mA is used
ESP32 module as a load.
ESP32 module is a series of low-cost, low-
power system on a chip microcontroller IMPLEMENTATION [12]
with integrated Wi-Fi and dual-mode Hardware Setup
Bluetooth. It is an all-rounded chip for the Solar energy generated by solar panel is in
development of IOT projects and the form of DC current therefore we use
embedded systems in general. it's very Dc bulb for usage. One terminal is
reliable. connected to the battery while another

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 Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering
Volume 3 Issue 1

terminal is connected to the current sensor. – is used in system for upload the code on
Bread board is used for complex circuit to board. The sensor and circuit are
and also helps to build voltage divider. connected to the Module for communicate
Current & voltage value is sensed by with them to sense current and voltage.
Arduino through analog pins. With these We write the code in “C” for the sensing
values, Arduino programming calculates and calculating the power and energy.
power and energy. Further output is sent to
the ESP32 module through USB cable and We use web page for monitoring system,
Arduino is considered as the server. The the monitoring page displays the table
monitor displays the web page & cloud contains voltage, current and power. The
data. web page shows the real time data of solar
panel.
Table 1
Sr. Components Specifications We use blink app to create an app for
No
1. Solar panel 12 Watts
mobile user that can access the real time
2. Load Light/dc motor data of solar panel. Using this we can
3. Processor ESP32 module make a dashboard within app which shows
4. Current sensor ACS712(30Amp) the values in the app. The data stored in
5. Voltage Voltage divider (25V)
sensor the AWS cloud platform is accessed with a
unique API key then we can access the
Software Setup data and monitor the data.
The open-source Arduino Software (IDE)

Fig. 2: System Design.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE renewable energy and also it reduces the
Implementing Renewable Energy electricity issues.
technologies is one of the most
recommended way of reducing the The main benefit of using IOT in solar
environmental impact. Because of the energy is that we can see exactly what’s
frequent power cut, it is important to use happening with all your assets from one
the renewable energy and monitoring it. central control panel. By connecting your
Monitoring guides the user in analysis of devices to a cloud network, you can
the renewable energy usage. This system is identify where the problem is originated
cost effective and its efficiency is about and you can dispatch a technician to fix it
95%.This enables the efficient use of before it disrupts your entire system.

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 Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering
Volume 3 Issue 1

Without IOT, it would be difficult to Trends in Research and Innovation for

determine whether the problem is network- Social Welfare (Startup Conclave)
related or hardware-related. Using the (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
IOT, your system will be less susceptible 4. Patil, S., Vijayalashmi, M., &
to outages and productivity issues. By Tapaskar, R. (2017). Solar energy
installing an all-in-one edge-to-cloud IOT monitoring system using IOT. Indian
solution to connect your solar assets, you Journal of Scientific Research, 149-
can manage even with thousands of 156.
individual devices connected to our 5. Phung, M. D., De La Villefromoy, M.,
network. In addition to providing & Ha, Q. (2017, August).
companies with real-time alerts, leveraging Management of solar energy in
IOT in solar energy can lead to improve microgrids using IoT-based
with all your assets from one central dependable control. In 2017 20th
control panel. By connecting your devices international conference on electrical
to a cloud network, you can identify where machines and systems (ICEMS) (pp.
the problem is occurring. 1-6). IEEE.
6. Katyarmal, M., Walkunde, S.,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Sakhare, A., & Rawandale, U. S.
We acknowledge the efforts and hard work (2018). Solar power monitoring
by the experts who have contributed system using IoT. Int Res J Eng
towards the development of the intelligent Technol (IRJET), 5(3), 2395-0056.
remote monitoring system. We would like 7. Nordrum, A. (2016). Popular internet
to thank Mr. Suraj Rajan, MD Quadtech of things forecast of 50 billion devices
for helping us throughout the project with by 2020 is outdated. IEEE spectrum,
their constant guidance. 18(3).
8. https://nevonprojects.com/iot-solar-
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