Management of solar energy in microgrids using IoT-based dependable control
For microgrid operators, this work addresses the need for fault-tolerant control of solar energy systems, but the experimental validation lacks concrete performance numbers, making it an incremental contribution.
The paper proposes an IoT-based dependable control system for managing solar energy in microgrids, using local sensor data and real-time meteorological information to optimize photovoltaic array tracking and maintain system resilience despite controller failures. Experimental results validate the approach.
Solar energy generation requires efficient monitoring and management in moving towards technologies for net-zero energy buildings. This paper presents a dependable control system based on the Internet of Things (IoT) to control and manage the energy flow of renewable energy collected by solar panels within a microgrid. Data for optimal control include not only measurements from local sensors but also meteorological information retrieved in real-time from online sources. For system fault tolerance across the whole distributed control system featuring multiple controllers, dependable controllers are developed to control and optimise the tracking performance of photovoltaic arrays to maximally capture solar radiation and maintain system resilience and reliability in real time despite failures of one or more redundant controllers due to a problem with communication, hardware or cybersecurity. Experimental results have been obtained to evaluate the validity of the proposed approach.