Monitoring at the Zuera II solar park in Spain guarantees long-term yields

• Grupo Jorge operates a solar park covering an area of more than 30 hectares near the Spanish city of Zaragoza.
• The continuous monitoring of the strings ensures the stable and efficient operation of the entire system.
• A string combiner box has been developed, which houses the string monitoring modules as well as the necessary surge protection components.
• Grupo Jorge's long-term energy yields are secured, thanks to the complete regulation and visualization of recorded values.

Grupo Jorge has been active in the meat processing industry for 75 years and is committed to adopting a sustainable approach to the available resources.

The Zuera II solar park it operates, which was connected to the grid in October 2012 with 11.5 megawatts, covers an area of more than 30 hectares and generates solar power for more than 10,000 residents.

The Zuera II solar park consists of 54,000 crystalline modules, which track the path of the sun along a single horizontal axis.

The solar park topology is divided into nine segments. Each segment is made up of 256 strings, which are connected to two central inverters via 16 string combiner boxes (SCBs). Between the SCB and the inverter station, DC meters measure the current and voltage of the DC lines. On the AC side, the converted current and voltage are determined before being fed into the power grid.

An important requirement for operators is the continuous monitoring of the strings, which ensures the stable and efficient operation of the entire system.

With this in mind, Phoenix Contact has developed a string combiner box for 16 strings, which houses the string monitoring modules from the SOLARCHECK product range as well as the necessary surge protection components.

The solar cables are connected to each SCB via external SUNCLIX plug-in connections. Potential collective terminal blocks enable the fast and space-saving interconnection of the individual strings. The SOLARCHECK measuring modules monitor the string currents and voltages. Surge protection components for DC and data cables round off the SCB solution.

An Inline small-scale controller collects the string data from the SOLARCHECK communication modules on the devices in the park. Tracking units, SOLARCHECK communication modules, DC meters, inverters, and AC meters are addressed in this way. The controller also records the temperature of the PV panels as well as the radiation values recorded via analog input terminals, and then further processes the data.

Two meteorological stations record relevant weather data, which is forwarded to a controller. This sends the data directly to the SCADA system and to the higher-level park controller via the PROFINET protocol.

Display the recorded values at any time

Operators use the web-based AXweb+ management system from Phoenix Contact, which displays performance and weather data for the solar park, for visualization and system monitoring. Operators can call the latest data via a website on which park performance is visualized either locally or via the Internet in order to gain an overview of relevant information at any time.

An error report documents failures and visualizes problems with the communication between the individual devices in the park. Maintenance personnel can access detailed information at any time at the click of a mouse.In the event of an error, the cause can be localized quickly and measures can be introduced immediately. Service employees are also notified of faults by SMS.