As renewable energy continues to expand its role in the global energy mix, the importance of accurately measuring solar photovoltaic (PV) performance has become more important than ever before. For distributed energy management systems, accurate real-time performance measurement not only ensures maximum efficiency and minimizes downtime, but also optimizes the energy flow in management systems. More accurate Solar PV performance measurement essentially translates into better behind-the-meter resource allocation. This primarily has an effect on the scale of residential and commercial size, where additional hardware is redundant and manual modeling and adjustment of measurment results is not practical.
Challenges in Solar PV Performance Measurement
Historically, measuring the performance of solar PV systems involved using a combination of dedicated weather sensors—such as irradiance sensors, anemometers, and temperature sensors—to account for environmental conditions affecting energy generation. While effective, this approach can be costly, requiring additional hardware installation and sensor maintenance. An alternative option has evolved with satellite imagery, enabling proxy measurment of average irradiance and temperature conditions on ground level via remote sensing.
In a distributed energy ecosystem, where multiple rooftop generation sites are spread across different locations, the ability to track and analyze the performance of individual solar PV units is essential for both operations and energy management. Distributed rooftop PV systems vary significantly in their solar generation patterns on daily and seasonal scales, due to a wide range of rooftop shapes, sizes, equipment hardware, and local constraints—leading to substantial variation in generation results. This requires either compromising with lower performance measurement accuracy via remote sensing solutions or adding manual modeling adjustments, which demand significant professional effort and human involvement per each site.
The accuracy level of daily performance measurement with remote sensing for recently installed PV systems can range from 80-85% without modeling adjustment to some 90% accuracy with manually adjusted modeling. Results however further deteriorate in terms of accuracy with degradation of PV systems over the years, adding more uncertainty due to different aging rates. Interesingy, there are ways to compensate the diviation of results due to degradation utilizing machine learning - essentially adjusting for different degradation rates of individual PV systems over the years. The accuracy range of 80-90% via remote sensing is however very difficult to improve without on site irradiance sensors.
Soltell’s Sensorless Technology and the SysMap Solution
Enter Soltell’s SysMap solution, a novel approach to solar PV performance measurement that eliminates the need for dedicated weather sensors while achieving an impressive 94-98% accuracy. This solution leverages Sensorless technology, which relies on Industrial IoT to simulate weather factors and correlate them with PV output to obtain performance figures. SysMap, powered by Sensorless technology offers several advantages over traditional methods:
Cost Savings: Without the need for expensive hardware such as weather sensors and irradiance meters, distributed energy managers can save on both upfront installation costs and ongoing maintenance expenses. It is even cheaper than remote sensing on the cost-per-site comparison.
Simplified Deployment: Since the technology doesn’t rely on additional physical sensors, SysMap simplifies the deployment of performance measurement across multiple sites, making it ideal for distributed solar PV. The output is easily integrated with energy management systems via API, compliant with the Orange Button data standard for distributed energy resources (DERs).
High Accuracy: Despite the lack of dedicated hardware, SysMap achieves a performance accuracy level of 94-98% on daily basis. The accuracy is much superior over remote sensing which is generally at 80-90% level. This high level of precision is made possible through sophisticated blend of Industrial IoT with site's PV actual generation data, making the results highly reliable.
Scalability: Sensorless technology makes energy management scalable, allowing systems to accurately balance energy flow without the complexity and expense of installing individual weather sensors at each location. Whether it's a small rooftop installation or an industrial-scale solar site, SysMap adapts easily to different scales of operation.
Supplementary Analytics: SysMap's advanced cloud-based solution enables real-time performance analytics across geographically dispersed PV installations. Automated energy systems can get accurate performance results, and detect chronic and acute anomalies to produce insights for operational purposes. Issues such as shading, soiling, leakage, grid disruptions and panel degradation, or inverter malfunctions can be detected early and quantitevely assessed. This minimizes downtime and ensures that corrective actions are taken promptly to restore optimal performance.
Why High-Accuracy Solar Performance Measurement Matters
The difference between traditional solar PV performance measurement technologies dependent on hardware or remote sensing vs high-accuracy Sensorless performance measurement technology is significant, especially for distributed energy management systems. Here’s why:
Maximized Energy Cost-efficiency: Even small discrepancies in performance measurement can lead to energy losses and subotpimal energy flow, particularly in complex energy management systems with sophisticated energy services. With SysMap that provides near-perfect accuracy, energy system can can both capture the maximum potential energy from each solar installation and perfect the balance of PV-ESS-Demand vs the grid.
Optimized Resource Allocation: High-accuracy measurements enable energy systems to better allocate resources - such as energy storage resources more effectively. By pinpointing exactly where performance drops occur and by what margin, resources can be re-balanced, improving energy finance, reducing operational costs and enhancing overall efficiency.
Increased ROI: Accurate solar PV performance assessment directly impacts the financial success of sites with renewable energy generation. By maintaining optimal energy flow, system performance and minimizing inefficiencies, energy systems can significantly improve the return on investment of the solar assets. Electricity revenue can be easily enhanced by 5-10%, resulting in dramatic ROI improvements.
Improved System-level Decision-Making: Real-time performance data gives operators and systems the insights needed to make smarter decisions about energy storage, load balancing, and grid interaction, contributing to a more resilient and reliable distributed energy network.
Smarter Distributed Energy Management Systems
In today’s rapidly evolving energy landscape, the ability to measure solar PV performance accurately and efficiently is key to unlocking the full potential of decentralized renewable energy. Soltell’s SysMap solution, powered by Sensorless technology, offers a groundbreaking approach to performance measurement, achieving unparalleled accuracy without the need for costly hardware.
For distributed energy management systems, the benefits are clear: lower costs, fast deployment, and real-time insights that enable better automated decision-making. As solar PV continues to grow as a critical energy source, solutions like SysMap will play an increasingly important role in driving the future of sustainable energy management.
Interested in high-accuracy solar PV system performance measurement to optimize energy management without installing weather sensors at a site? Fill details to receive a demo or contact us.
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