Abstract
The unravelling inspiration of solar energy and its abundance has paved the way for sustainable electricity generation. Its recent development has led to its integration within the utility grid to feed various utilities and consumers. The United Arab Emirates has been blessed with plentiful sunshine, which in hand encouraged investment in solar energy integration to reduce its carbon emission index. The need for sustainable electricity generation requires constant monitoring in real-time to sustain its performance and longevity, to maintain long-term results. This has been encouraged through the involvement of cloud platforms and various network topologies to achieve this feat. The significant objective of the study is to realize and evaluate the real-time performance harvesting monitoring system for PV systems. In this case study, a real-time monitoring system for a grid-connected photovoltaic system is demonstrated. Critical parameters affecting the PV generation are recorded and visualized through the user-friendly interface. DC power generation from PV arrays, AC power feed to the utility grid, and environmental conditions i.e. solar irradiance, ambient temperature, wind speed, and module operating temperature are recorded in real-time and updated on the webserver. The sample data of August 2021 is analyzed that confirms the production of 428.25 kWh AC power from 2.88 kWp grid-connected PV system. The parametric data is stored in the data acquisition hub, which is responsible to maintain local backup as well as coordinating with the webserver to periodically upload the data on cloud storage. Both real-time and historical data can be accessed locally or remotely through the webserver for real-time monitoring or scheduling the next maintenance cycle.