Ather Iftikhar, Umair Sethi, Farooq Ahmed, Sahat Nawaz
The health of the Solar PV systems should be monitored continuously for their better performance and maintenance. For PV systems installed at rural locations, remote monitoring capabilities provide the information in advance when system performance is degraded or is likely to fail. Based on this information, preventive maintenance can be carried out to improve the performance and life of the system, thereby reducing the overall operating cost. Advantages and disadvantages of several monitoring systems for rural application is discussed and an optimum new technique is proposed as a solution to overcome the limitations of other techniques and also to reduce the cost of the system. The proposed technique uses GSM channel for the communication i.e. by sending and receiving text messages when prompted by the user and when there is any fault occurring on the system The project focuses on the development of a module that can be attached to domestic solar panel systems. These systems are located on the roof and to check them user has to move towards them multiple times a day. A simple module consisting of sensors is attached to the system that calculates the parameter of system and sends them to user via SMS.