An Automatic Measurement System for the Performance Evaluation of Medium-sized and Large Photovoltaic Plants

"In recent years renewable sources of power are being increasingly exploited to address the challenges of climate. change and fossil fuel depletion. Wind power and solar power are two of the few renewable energy sources. capable of rapidly satisfying a reasonable proportion of future energy requirements [1].. Acceptance testing of medium-sized and large photovoltaic (PV) plants requires functional tests executed to. verify the proper working and energy efficiency. A final certificate ensures the compliance with the technical. requirements, as required by Italian Conto Energia program. Tests must be conducted according to several. technical norms. The paper describes a measurement system, implemented for testing medium-sized PV plants in. full compliance with the international standards; moreover, the measurement system can be configured to. measure additional parameters, because it is software based. The measurement system has been adopted for the. performance evaluation of a 842 kWp PV plant, with satisfactory results."