Development of a low-cost DC measurement circuit for photovoltaic systems using industrial equipment as a reference

This paper considers the DC measurement circuit often used in photovoltaic systems and its relatively high cost. The aim of the present work is to highlight the development of a low-cost high accuracy DC measurement arrangement. To achieve this, a circuit comprised of a voltage divider connected to a microcontroller's ADC for voltage measurement, a single board computer for data acquisition and a dedicated current sensor were used. As a result, voltage and current were acquired facilitating the calculation of power for the studied circuit. A correction coefficient was determined and applied by using industrial equipment as a measurement reference. This allowed the development of a measurement system that may be used as an alternative to the conventional industrial solution, with an average accuracy of 99.67 % compared with the used reference. The proposed system may be used to increase the flexibility of measurement in DC applications through a cost-effective lab solution, and will be improved in further research studies.