Low-cost SCADA platforms for a solar energy system

Allafi, Ibrahim (2017) Low-cost SCADA platforms for a solar energy system. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (9MB)

Abstract

Conventional energy has been used from ancient times. Coal, natural gas, oil, uranium, and firewood are example of conventional source. These sources are consider the main source of air pollution. So, it is desired to use clean energy sources such as solar power, wind turbine, and hydro-electric power. We need to monitor and control parameters of clean energy sources when they are working as a power source. In this research, few low-cost Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been designed for a small photovoltaic system to save data in a text file and show it on monitor screen as a number or graph. The proposed system is designed using four methods. The first method, is based on low cost sensors, Arduino Uno, and Raspberry pi. These components are connected together to send data to web server on the internet (www.ubidots.com). Second method, is based on three things: low cost sensors, Arduino Uno, and free Reliance SCADA software. In this method, the data is sent to user interface -which are created by Reliance Software- from Arduino by using mini USB. Third method, is based on a low-cost ESP32, SD card reader, Wi-Fi, and sensors. The purpose of SD card is to save data as text file which come from sensors by ESP32, and it saves on a web page as well. Wi Fi of ESP32 is used to access to the file of data using a computer, a tablet, or cell phone and it could be download easily. Last method, is based on low cost sensors and Arduino LoRa. In this method, the data of photovoltaic system has been sent to a control room which is located 1km from photovoltaic system location. LoRa is used to send the data instead of mini USB and Wi Fi. This thesis, which describes the details of all the four SCADA system for a PV system at MUN, presents a comparison among them.

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