US-20260128710-A1 - PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MONITORING THEREOF

US20260128710A1US 20260128710 A1US20260128710 A1US 20260128710A1US-20260128710-A1

Abstract

A photovoltaic system includes: a plurality of solar cell modules each including a plurality of solar cells, at least one monitoring device configured to measure a module voltage of a corresponding solar cell module from among the plurality of solar cell modules, and a current measuring device that receives the measured module voltage from the at least one monitoring device and is connected to the plurality of solar cell modules through a power line to measure a module current of the plurality of solar cell modules.

Inventors

Ju Wan Kang

Assignees

Hanwha Solutions Corporation

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251218
Priority Date: 20200918

Claims (4)

1 . A method of monitoring a photovoltaic system, the method comprising: measuring a module voltage of a plurality of solar cell modules; transmitting power generated from the plurality of solar cell modules and module data including the measured module voltage to a current measuring device; and measuring, by the current measuring device, a module current of the plurality of solar cell modules based on a received power.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the measuring of the module voltage comprises: measuring, by a monitoring device corresponding to the plurality of solar cell modules, the module voltage using a voltage measuring device, and wherein the transmitting comprises: transmitting, by the monitoring device, the module data including the measured module voltage to the current measuring device through a power line.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of solar cell modules are divided into at least one module string, at least one solar cell module included in each of the at least one module string is connected in series to the current measuring device, and wherein the measuring of the module current comprises: measuring, by the current measuring device, the module current of the plurality of solar cell modules by measuring a current of the at least one module string.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the measuring of the module current comprises: receiving module string data including at least one module data and power from the at least one module string through the power line; separating the power and the module string data received through the power line; and measuring a current of a corresponding module string based on the separated power.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a divisional of U.S. Application No. Ser. No. 17/529,054, filed Nov. 17, 2021, which claims priority claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0120735, filed on Sep. 18, 2020, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. BACKGROUND 1. Field The present disclosure relates to a photovoltaic system, and a monitoring device and a monitoring method thereof. 2. Description of the Related Art A photovoltaic system may measure a voltage and a current based on data for monitoring the amount of power generated by each of solar cell modules or the total amount of power generated, and may periodically or continuously provide the voltage and current to an external server or terminal. The conventional photovoltaic system is implemented such that each of the solar cell modules measures a voltage and a current, and transmits the measured voltage and current to an inverter or a gateway, respectively. Because each of the solar cell modules needs to include components for measuring a voltage and measuring a current, the structure of the solar cell module may be complicated and cost may increase. In addition, as the number of solar cell modules included in a photovoltaic system increases, the amount of data transmitted/received between solar cell modules and a gateway (or inverter) also increases, which may cause problems such as lowering of data reception and management efficiency of a gateway, etc. or lowering of a data transmission rate due to communication interference. As an area in which the photovoltaic system is installed increases, a distance between the solar cell modules and the gateway (or inverter) may increase. In this case, a transmission rate of data transmitted from the solar cell modules to the gateway or the like may decrease, and power required for data transmission may increase. SUMMARY Provided are photovoltaic systems, monitoring devices, and monitoring methods capable of more efficiently measuring data (such as module voltage and module current) for calculating the amount of power generated by solar cell modules. Provided are photovoltaic systems, monitoring devices, and monitoring methods capable of efficiently transmitting and processing data related to the calculation of the amount of power generated by solar cell modules. Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments. According to an aspect of an embodiment, a photovoltaic system comprises: a plurality of solar cell modules each including a plurality of solar cells, at least one monitoring device configured to measure a module voltage of a corresponding solar cell module from among the plurality of solar cell modules, and a current measuring device that receives the measured module voltage from the at least one monitoring device and is connected to the plurality of solar cell modules through a power line to measure a module current of the plurality of solar cell modules. According to an exemplary embodiment, the plurality of solar cell modules are divided into at least one module string, solar cell modules included in the same module string are connected in series to the current measuring device, and the current measuring device measures the module current by measuring a current of the at least one module string. According to an exemplary embodiment, the at least one monitoring device comprises: a voltage measuring device configured to measure the module voltage of the corresponding solar cell module, and a power line communication interface configured to transmit module data including the measured module voltage to the current measuring device or another monitoring device through a power line. According to an exemplary embodiment, the current measuring device comprises: a communication device that receives, from the at least one module string, module string data including at least one module data and power, and separates the received module string data and the power; and a current measuring device configured to measure a current of a corresponding module string based on the separated power. According to an exemplary embodiment, the current measuring device transmits a signal to the at least one module string, the at least one monitoring device, in response to the signal, transmits the module data to the current measuring device or another monitoring device, and the current measuring device receives, from the at least one module string, module string data including at least one module data. According to an exemplary embodiment, the at least one module string includes a plurality of module strings, the current measuring device transmits a signal to each of the plurality of module strings simultaneously, and at least some of reception times of respective piece