With the continuous maturity and popularization of solar photovoltaic power generation technology, digital mining and remote monitoring are becoming more and more important. For large ground power stations, fewer or even unattended people is the fundamental way to reduce operation and maintenance costs. For distributed power stations, energy data visualization and transparency are also the standards that people care about day by day. Solar photovoltaic power generation is gradually turning from special application to more common civil, from auxiliary energy to basic energy transition. At the same time, with the increasing number of photovoltaic installations, market saturation, people began to pay more and more attention to power generation, extensive power station operation and maintenance management is bound to gradually transition to fine power station operation and maintenance management, facts have proved that the photovoltaic industry in developed countries also experienced this transition.

Therefore, in order to monitor the operation status of photovoltaic (grid-connected) power station equipment in real time and ensure the normal operation of equipment and devices, it is recommended that the power station be equipped with intelligent remote data acquisition and monitoring system to improve the safety of power station operation and operation and maintenance management efficiency, and increase power generation income and asset value.

At present, not all power stations in China are equipped with monitoring equipment, but with the maturity and popularization of solar power generation technology, solar power generation has turned from special application to more common folk, from auxiliary energy to basic energy. At the same time, with the increase of photovoltaic installation, market saturation, people are more and more concerned about the power generation, the transportation management of extensive power stations will inevitably gradually change to the transportation management of detailed power stations, facts have proved that the photovoltaic industry in developed countries also experienced this change. Let's look at why you need a PV data collector. Photovoltaic data collector is the photovoltaic grid-connected inverter in the photovoltaic power station, the convergence box, weather station and electricity meter and other equipment data collected by RS485, RS232 and RS422, and transmitted to the database through GPRS, Ethernet, WIFI, 3G and other ways of equipment.

Classification of photovoltaic data collectors

Photovoltaic data collectors are divided into small photovoltaic data collectors and large photovoltaic data collectors according to the size of photovoltaic power stations. Photovoltaic data collectors are divided into ordinary photovoltaic data collectors and network data collectors according to the monitoring mode. Photovoltaic network data collector is divided into GPRS photovoltaic data collector, Ethernet data collector, etc. Photovoltaic data collectors can be divided into special photovoltaic data collectors and compatible photovoltaic data collectors according to applicability.

Application of photovoltaic data collector

The photovoltaic data collector is mainly used in some small and medium-sized power stations, and industrial computer is mainly used for local monitoring of large-scale photovoltaic power stations. The proportion of network monitoring of photovoltaic power stations is still not high, mainly because enterprises do not pay much attention to after-sales. In the management of grid-connected photovoltaic inverter manufacturing enterprises, the product research and development department has an urgent demand for these monitoring data, but the sales and engineering personnel do not pay much attention to it, which leads to a small amount of installation of photovoltaic network monitoring.

With the increasing efforts of photovoltaic network monitoring propaganda and the use of more and more enterprises, network monitoring will become the future of photovoltaic power station after-sales management of the necessary products.

Data collectors can be divided into built-in type and external type:

1, built-in: embedded in the inverter, used to collect inverter data information, also known as embedded data acquisition module.

Interpretation of data collector of photovoltaic power station

2. External: in addition to the inverter, it can also connect and collect the data of the confluence box, weather station, electricity meter and other equipment

Interpretation of data collector of photovoltaic power station

Three, the reason for using the data collector

1. Increase production

How to make the plant run optimally and generate more electricity?

First of all, we need to know that in the operation of photovoltaic power station, quality usually depends on the following two factors:

a) The ratio of the energy gain value to the potential energy gain value of a particular power station;

b) Plant utilization over time.

Therefore, if we want to optimize plant production, we must be able to accurately monitor the actual energy gain of the plant and accurately estimate the solar energy gain. How to accurately monitor the actual power of the plant? This is where the data collector comes in.

The data collector obtains the system running status based on the real-time data collected. This is not only to record historical data, but also to analyze the data and identify the factors that affect the power generation of the plant. Of course, after the analysis is in place, there needs to be a swift action response! Therefore, in order to maintain the operation of the power station and keep it in the optimal state, operation and maintenance personnel must actively monitor the equipment performance, troubleshoot problems, and timely repair (or fine tuning) through the monitoring system, so as to improve the generation efficiency and system return rate. Therefore, the quality of data collector and monitoring system itself is particularly important, not only because it will affect the accuracy of power generation data monitoring, but also to evaluate and control the overall quality of the power station.

2. Reduce costs

How to realize remote monitoring and online management of power station to reduce operation and maintenance cost?

Because the traditional offline operation and maintenance cannot obtain the working status of the power station and its components in time, in case of problems, only workers can be dispatched to the site for inspection. This is easy to consume manpower and material resources, increase operation and maintenance costs; At the same time, door-to-door service usually starts from appointment detection to debugging. The whole business process requires cross-department cooperation and takes time, which is easy to lead to the decrease of customer satisfaction and affect the brand image.

If a data acquisition device is available, engineers can monitor 1 (person) to multiple (power station) in real time through the monitoring system, and remotely discharge problems for users online. In case of emergency, personnel can be dispatched to the site immediately through the work order system, which not only improves work efficiency, but also reduces labor and operation and maintenance costs.

3. Increase revenue

How to avoid the omission of electricity subsidies and maximize user benefits?

Through the monitoring of the data collector, the staff can grasp the working state of the power station more comprehensively, calmly cope with emergencies, respond quickly and solve in time. For example, we sometimes have power stations suddenly shut down for some reason; At this time, if a data collector is installed in the power station, it can help us to know the news of system outage in the first time, judge the cause of system outage from the change of data (usually a failure of a certain part), and send an alarm and work order, which is conducive to the staff to quickly locate the problem parts and repair or replace them. In this way, the system can avoid idle/outage without knowing, unwarranted loss of power subsidies.

Interpretation of data collector of photovoltaic power station

According to the national policy, the state subsidy for distributed photovoltaic power generation projects (self-use, surplus electricity online) is 0.42 yuan/KWH, in addition to regional subsidies. If the plant is offline for two hours a day, that adds up to 730 hours a year, a full month of lost revenue. This is very damaging to the plant owner, so real-time monitoring of the plant is necessary.

Four, the cost of data collector

In terms of the single cost of the collector, the built-in collector is lower than the external collector. However, when the whole power station project needs to collect more than one inverter, the external collector is more cost-effective. So the total cost still has to be based on actual demand.

5. Installation method of data collector

The built-in collector is directly embedded in the inverter, and no additional installation is required. Most external collectors use an RJ45 network port and can be quickly connected to devices using network cables.

Vi. Monitoring quantity of data collector

In the built-in mode, one collector can collect and monitor only one inverter. In the external mode, one collector can collect data from multiple inverters at the same time.

Vii. Monitoring objects of the data collector

The built-in collector collects the data of the inverter. The safe and stable operation of the inverter is the key to ensure the stable operation of the photovoltaic power generation system. The external collector can collect the data of inverter, meter, confluence box, weather station and other equipment, so that the power station monitoring is more comprehensive.

Experts recommend using a third-party monitoring system because not only can you ensure objectivity of the data, but you can also manage all systems at a glance with a single monitoring platform (compatible with multiple brands). In addition, users can avoid logging in to multiple monitoring platforms to improve the efficiency of system/device management.

Read the introduction of some of the above data collectors, I believe you also have a certain understanding of this. Photovoltaic power generation technology is a high and new power generation technology to optimize the composition of future electricity. With the rapid development of photovoltaic industry in our country, the role of photovoltaic monitoring system will become more and more important. From the trend of refined energy management, the installation of data collectors and remote monitoring and management are very important for equipment manufacturers, operation and maintenance companies, investors, EPC, end users, and the prospect is promising.