E ff e c t O f We a t h e r P a r a m e t e r s

On The Performance Of PV Solar

Plant And Role Of High
R e s o l u ti o n D a t a L o g g e r s I n S o l a r
Plant Performance Monitoring

With the increasing push for renewable energy, the

number of installations of photovoltaic solar plants is rising
steeply. While a solar power plant essentially captures the
freely and abundantly available solar energy, large one
time and on-going costs are associated with
commissioning and maintaining a solar power plant. This
technical note elaborates on the working of PV plants, some
weather parameters which affect the performance of the
plant and role of a weather monitoring station in
maintaining and improving the plant performance.

Working Of A PV Solar Plant

To begin with, let us have a quick look at the block
diagram and basic functioning of a PV solar plant.
 Block Diagram Of A PV Solar Plant
At the heart of any PV plant are solar panels which may
or may not have a solar tracking system. The solar
tracking system facilitates panel movement to ensure that
the sun rays fall normally to the solar panels for most of
the time and thus improves the energy output. The DC
current generated from the solar panel goes to a voltage
regulator and through it to the control unit. Since the PV
panels generate DC power, an inverter is required to
convert DC to AC. MPPT unit is also usually installed to
ensure that the system operates at the maximum power
point.
Parameters Affecting The
Performance Of A PV Plant
Performance of a solar plant is measured in terms of its
Performance Ratio (PR). The performance ratio (PR) for a
solar power plant is defined in IEC 61724 [1] and is a
metric commonly used to measure solar photovoltaic
(PV) plant performance for acceptance and operations
testing. The PR measures how effectively the plant
converts sunlight collected by the PV panels into AC
energy Performance ratio is the ratio of actual electricity
generated by the plant to the electricity that would have
been generated if the plant consistently converted sunlight
to electricity at the level expected from the rated DC
power. PR plays a crucial role for financiers as well as
plant operators as the profitability of the entire plant is
very closely linked to the PR.

The PR depends not only on the system parameters

(efficiency of panels, system design, inverter efficiency,
cell mismatch, wiring etc.) but is also greatly affected by
numerous weather parameters like elevated PV module
temperatures, a reflection of the sunlight from panel
surface etc. In the daily operation of the plant, weather-
related parameters play a major role. For instance, as the
solar radiation increases, the plant output increases; but
the increased radiation increases the temperature of the
PV modules which reduces their efficiency and hence, 
brings down the PR of the plant. A study conducted
shows that a 3 Deg. C. rise in annual temperature brings
down the plant performance by 0.9%. The graph below
shows the effect of an increase in irradiance on the DC
efficiency

Fluctuations in ambient temperature also greatly affect the

performance of the solar plant. Everything else remaining
constant, fluctuations in ambient temperature from 25
Deg.C. to 45 Deg. C. can deteriorate plant performance
by 5 to 10%.
Relation Between Temperature And DC
Efficiency
 Apart from irradiation and module temperature, wind
also significantly affects the performance of a PV plant. 
Usually, higher wind speed results in cooler modules and
hence higher efficiency. A wind velocity which is 3 m/s
more than usual wind velocity will enhance the DC
efficiency by roughly 2%. The graph below shows the
effect of wind velocity on panel temperature for Silicon
panels.

Effect of wind velocity on panel temperature for Silicon

Panels
Role Of A WMS In Performance
Monitoring
A weather monitoring station can be immensely helpful in
monitoring the efficiency and performance of any solar
power plant. The data from the WMS (Weather Monitoring
Station)can be used to get many insights about the plant
operation and possible avenues to increase the plant
output. A WMS cannot change the weather parameters,
but it helps to analyze and predict them so as to get
maximum output from the solar plant. Typically, a
weather monitoring station monitors parameters such as
solar radiation, other weather conditions such as wind
velocity, wind direction, humidity, module temperature
etc. WMS also calculates the performance ratio of the
solar power plant using all the captured data. The
adjoining figure shows construction and various
components used in a WMS.

Role Of Sensors And DataLogger

As it can be seen, at the core of any WMS is a data logger
which captures data from various sensors like
pyranometer, anemometer, module temperature sensor,
rain gauge etc. Even a slight error in the measurement of
any parameter can drastically impact the calculated PR
values. For instance, the typical scale factor of a solar
radiation sensor is generally 10uV/Watt/m.sq. Imagine a
100 MW plant which can generate up to 100,000 KW
power. This translates into up to 100,000 KWhr of energy
generated in an hour. Let us assume that the solar
radiation level is 500 W/m^2 at the moment. If the
sensitivity of the pyranometer used is 10 UV/W/m^2 and
the error in the measurement of irradiance due to data
logger is 50 microvolts (1%) which is equivalent to 5
W/m^2, there will be an error of 5/500 in irradiation
measurement translating in an error of

(5/500) * 100,000 = 1000 KWhr error in the measurement of energy

per hour.
At a rate of INR 4 / unit (KWhr), it will translate to INR
4000 per hour. So, if the plant is generating lesser energy
than as per reading of radiation level shown by data
logger due to dust on panels, actionable data for cleaning
the panel and generating more energy may be lost, on the
other hand if the data logger is showing lower reading
than the energy available and therefore generated, the
plant operator may not be able to report factual data. This
apparently minor error in the measurement of solar
radiation will affect the calculation of efficiency and in a
100 MW plant, will result in far from realistic energy
values.

Apart from good quality sensors, a high-resolution data

logger is a must to capture the data accurately. High-
resolution 24-bit data loggers from Aeron can yield much
better data as compared to data loggers with a resolution
of 13-16 bits which are commonly available in the
market.
Summary
Performance of a PV plant is highly dependent on
weather parameters like solar radiation, module
temperature, wind speed etc. A weather monitoring
station equipped with high-quality sensors and high-
resolution data logger will help in monitoring the plant
performance and take corrective actions.