Design and implementation of an intelligent low-cost IoT solution for energy monitoring of photovoltaic stations

Smart grids exploit the capability of information and communication technologies especially internet of things, to improve the sustainability, quality and the performance of energy production and demand previsions, whereas reducing resource consumption and increasing renewable energies integration. This paper aims to present a cost-effective and open source internet of things solution that could collect in intelligent manner and monitor in real-time the produced power and environmental conditions of solar stations. The solution is designed as a laboratory prototype that could be extended to monitor large scale photovoltaic stations using small adjustments. The system also provides an alert to a remote user, when there is a deviation of solar power generation quality parameters from the predefined set of standard values.