Control Hardware in the Loop and IoT Integration: A Testbed for Residential Photovoltaic System Evaluation

This article presents the development of a platform for the validation of controllers applied to photovoltaic systems (PVS) interconnected with the main grid (MG), integrating simulation real-time Hardware in the Loop (HIL) and Internet of Things (IoT). The proposed platform is made up of 5 parts: 1) a control HIL emulator (CHILE) that reproduces the behavior of a photovoltaic array, a power electronic converter for interconnection with the MG, and AC loads, 2) a cloud database implemented in ThingSpeak, 3) a smart sensor (SS) that monitors the behavior of AC loads, 4) a residential PVS with internet connection, and 5) an Android application for remote monitoring. The data generated by the residential system and the SS are stored in the database and from this information the CHILE reproduces its behavior in real time. The CHILE generates the variables related to the behavior of the PVS and transfers this information to the database. The mobile application allows users to view the behavior of the platform remotely. The usefulness of the platform is verified with a controller for the maximum power point tracking and the interconnection of the system with the MG in a 24-hour experiment, during which the behavior of the residential PVS and the AC loads are reproduced in the CHILE. The platform successfully emulates the behavior of the installed PVS with a mean relative error of 0.42% and the AC load with a mean absolute error of 10 mA. Regarding data transfer in the IoT network, a mean time response of the server of 441.9 ms was observed without data loss during the 24-hours experiment.

Automated summary

This article presents the development of a platform for validating controllers applied to photovoltaic systems using real-time hardware in the loop simulation and Internet of Things. The platform consists of a control emulator, a cloud database, a smart sensor, a residential photovoltaic system, and an Android application. It successfully replicates the behavior of the photovoltaic system and AC loads, with low errors and good data transfer performance.