PLC-based photovoltaic system management for smart home energy management system

As energy consumption in residential areas is rising, residential homes have deployed a photovoltaic (PV) system to save energy cost. The PV system needs to be continuously monitored to maintain its appropriate performance. In addition, it is desirable to monitor each PV module because one abnormal PV module affects the whole PV system. In this paper, the power line communication (PLC) compliant with HomePlug is adopted to monitor each PV module. The system architecture is composed of three components: PLC modem, renewable energy gateway (REG), and smart device application. The PLC modems are deployed on each PV module and monitor it. The REG aggregates and stores the monitored data from the PLC modems and the inverter. The smart device application retrieves the stored data from the REG to inform users of the status of the PV system. Users can browse and figure out the PV system performance in detail. The proposed system is installed in the field that is composed of sixteen 210W PV modules and a 3kW inverter. This scheme will maintain the performance of a PV system and contribute to enhancing home energy management system.