Cloud-based Application Platform for Smart Monitoring & Management
of Photovoltaic Generation Systems
Jihyun Lee, Youngmee Shin, Ilwoo Lee
IoT Research Division, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
{jihyun, ymshin, ilwoo}@etri.re.kr
Abstract
A solar photovoltaic generation system is
regarded as an eco-friendly energy resource.
Currently, a solar generation system is expanding to
private power generation companies due to a decline
in panel prices and an unlimited access permission
to an existing power system. The photovoltaic (PV)
monitoring and fault diagnosis system can effectively
maintain the PV system in the environment where the
1MW or less sized renewable facilities are
increasing rapidly. In this paper, we propose an
effective method to provide a monitoring and
management system of photovoltaic generation
systems based on cloud based application-sharing-
platform (i.e. SaaS application platform).
Keywords: solar, photovoltaic generation,
monitoring, management, system, SaaS, application
1. Introduction
Power sources such as solar power, wind power,
and solar heat are attracting attention as eco-friendly
energy sources. Generally, such renewable energy is
considered as a future alternative energy resource
because it does not pollute the environment.
If the wind power industry was the center of the
world by 2009, the initiative has shifted to the solar
power industry since 2010. And the future prospect
of solar power are brighter because market
penetration and price competitiveness is rapidly
increasing. In the case of solar PV, the entry
threshold of solar PV power generation is expected
to decline due to the falling panel prices and the
unlimited system access, and the ability to utilize
photovoltaic power will increase due to the
development of Energy Storage System (ESS) [1].
In addition, solar power generation systems are
recognized as an equipment that is easy to install and
easy to manage. However, in reality, it is composed
of a plurality of facilities and devices such as a light
collecting plate, a connection box, an inverter, and a
monitoring system, and the deterioration of the parts
is relatively fast compared to a general facility due to
irregular operations and long exposed in the air,
which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the
system.
This paper deals with the construction of
monitoring and fault checking system that can
efficiently cope with the maintenance of photovoltaic
power generation systems by combining ICT
technology [2][3].
2. Related Works
According to the announcement of the Ministry of
Industry and Trade in October 2016, unlimited
access to the existing power system by new
renewable facilities under 1MW has become possible
[4]. As a result, the number of small-scale
photovoltaic resources connected to the grid is
expected to significantly increase.
In the case of individual power generation
companies with a 20kW or less sized facility, there is
no obligation to appoint a safety manager. However,
if the efficiency of the photovoltaic module or the
inverter is lowered, the generation power is reduced
and the profit is affected. If PV owners know about it
in advance, it could be effective for the operator who
operates the solar power plant to manage the electric
energy generation.
In the case of a solar photovoltaic system installed
in apartment house, which is of interest in this paper,
the failure rate of each major component was
analysed to be 18% for modules, 65% for inverters,
1% for connection boxes and 15% for monitoring [5].
In general, the system installed in the apartment
house is conducted in the form of daily checking per
week and regular checking per month.
However, due to the characteristics of the PV
management office, it is difficult for the facility
manager who is not majoring in electricity and other
fields to manage the system effectively, so that it is
difficult to efficiently respond to failures of the
system with accurate understanding.
The real-time e-maintenance can greatly reduce
the technician's on-site visit and maintenance time
and costs. According to the fact-finding survey [6]
conducted by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry in 2012 on the field test of photovoltaic
power generation, the frequency and causes of the
failures of the photovoltaic power generation system
are various but mainly point to multiple failures
occurring in the operational phase [7].
From this point of view, it is necessary to secure
long-term efficiency of the system and provide
technical support for stable operations. Therefore,
countermeasures are important in terms of
maintenance for efficient and long-term introduction
of PV systems.
In the next section, we describe an effective
method of constructing a monitoring and fault-
checking system that can efficiently cope with the
maintenance of the photovoltaic system by
combining ICT technology.
3. Cloud-based PV Monitoring and
Management System
This paper focuses on technologies that can be
developed to reduce the cost of installing and
maintaining monitoring and maintenance systems,
which are essential for operating solar power plants
that are becoming increasingly widespread in small
power generation companies.
In this paper, we propose a shared hosting
platform to remotely monitor PV systems installed in
residences and apartment complexes with a SaaS
platform.
For reference, SaaS is a software development and
delivery model in which several application users
borrow and use services in a common shared hosting
environment. The SaaS ecosystem has stakeholders
called tenants who share and borrow the services
provided in a shared hosting environment. However,
a tenant is defined as a small-scale company that
borrows and uses an application in SaaS form rather
than as an individual one [8] [9]. Therefore, it means
that only a single application object needs to be run
for a number of small-scale company to provide the
services.
In energy industry, PV systems need to be
monitored in real-time to eliminate the causes of loss
of power production to maintain the performance of
the solar systems. Basically, if real-time monitoring
is impossible and accuracy is low, it is difficult to
detect anomaly data over a long period of time. For
better PV operation management, the monitoring and
fault diagnosis system is also evolving by providing
the application that can measure the power produced
in real time without affecting the solar power
generation system and accordingly diagnose the
abnormality.
Figure 1 shows the different types of SaaS
platforms. The SaaS platform consists of a platform
stack with an infrastructure, database management
systems, application platforms, applications, and
tenant customization capabilities required to
configure a shared hosting environment.
In Figure 1, “Single Tenant SaaS on Dedicated
Stack” represents the hosting environment in which
one user (i.e., tenant) runs his/her own platform.
“Single Tenant SaaS on Shared Virtualized
Hardware” stack is the environment that one tenant
shares only hardware and database system. As a
platform stack goes from left to right side from
Figure 1, a practical level of multi-tenancy reaches
higher, i.e. more shareable up to application services.
Figure 1. SaaS Platform Types
A shared application platform that provides
monitoring and diagnostics through a cloud service-
based, multitenant SaaS platform will enable
independent monitoring applications, fault diagnosis
applications, data repositories, and database
management systems to meet different requirements
from PV energy generation companies.
It has the advantage of efficient operations of a
system for monitoring and maintenance of integrated
photovoltaic systems at a reduced cost without
building his/her own dedicated system.
In addition, the customized services specialized to
the facility characteristics can be provided to the PV
energy generation companies with the methods of (1)
analyzing particular output values, (2) representing
diagnosed information, and (3) detecting customized
fault patterns in a customized service form for each
PV generation company.
Therefore, we suggest an emerging system that
enables various solar power generation companies to
share the integrated monitoring and fault diagnosis
system among them. Furthermore, it is possible to
provide the monitoring and diagnostic technology
that can be evolved to the level of each individual
customized service.
Figure 2 shows the structure of a solar monitoring
and maintenance system based on the cloud
application platform. The solar monitoring and
maintenance system based on the SaaS platform
mainly consists of (1) a base SaaS application
platform, (2) a shared repository, and (3) an
application as a service layer.
 Firstly, the SaaS application platform is managed
by a platform administrator, which provides a
configurable platform to be tailored according to the
needs of different business entities, i.e. PV owners. A
shared platform provides (1) networking, (2) security,
(3) server management, (4) operation system, (5)
storage, (6) customization, and (7) virtualization in
the form of a hosted virtualization architecture,
resulting in storage space and cost effectiveness.
Secondly, the shared repository stores the input
data and outputs results from/to the PV remote
monitoring and maintenance services. It is classified
into two types: a PV operation data repository and a
fault diagnosis & analysis data repository.
Thirdly, the applications as a service layer
provides services such as a remote monitor, a 24-
hour operational data analyzer, an operation checker,
a report generator, an alarm manager, an emergency
responder, and a maintenance planner.
Figure 2. SaaS-based PV Monitoring and
Preventive Maintenance System
Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of
Korea (No. 20173010013610).
References
[1] Chankuk Park, Hyunjae Kim, Haksik Yu,
“Development and Influence of Information and
Communication Convergence in Energy Sector,” Korea
Energy Economics Institute, 2014.
[2] Matt Powell, “Lifecycle Management with Solar
SaaS,” Renewable Energy World, 2009.
[3] Fusionsolar Cloud Management Center, “Smart PV
Management System,” HUAWEI, 2017.
[4] “Improvement of Renewable Energy Purchasing
System,” White paper, The Korea Ministry of Industry and
Trade, 2016.
[5] “Analytical Monitoring of Grid-connected Photovoltaic
Systems, Report IEA-PVPS T13-03:2014, IEA
International Energy Agency, 2014.
[6] “Operation Data Analysis on Field Test Business
Including New Technology of Solar Power Analysis,”
Technical Report, Mitsubishi Research Institute, March
2013.
[7] “Guideline for PV Field Test Business,” Japan’s
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 2013.
[8] Deshuai Wang, Yichuan Zhang, Bin Zhang, Ying Liu,
"Research and Implementation of a New SaaS Service
Execution Mechanism with Multi-Tenancy Support,"
ICISE 2009, pp. 336 - 339, 2009.
[9] Cor-Paul Bezemer, Andy Zaidman, "Challenges of
Reengineering into Multi-Tenant SaaS Applications,”
Technical Report, TUD-SERG-2010-012, 2010.

4. Conclusion
This study proposed cloud-based operation and
management system for solar system. The
functionality such as power generation monitoring,
power consumption information and fault diagnosis
are possible. The PV generation and consumption
information are stored in the data repository and user
interfaces are provide for database management. The
suggested system make possible to monitor and
manage information of the PV generators through the
user interfaces. In addition, the content of the offsite
database in the distributed cloud data store can be
stored in the cloud-based SaaS platform.
Furthermore, the fault diagnosis engine analyzes
the data at the remote site and provides a service to
diagnose operational conditions. The cloud-based
solar cell operation management system can bring the
market competitiveness of renewable energy and
solar power generators and PV generation system
owners can have the advantage of being able to
effectively operate their facilities.

Acknowledgments. Our work was supported by the

Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and
Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade,