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Monitoring and Control of a Photovoltaic Water

Pumping Test Bench under LabVIEW

Conference Paper · November 2016

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 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016

Monitoring and Control of a Photovoltaic Water Pumping Test

Bench under LabVIEW
Bilal Taghezouit, Yahia Bakelli, Omar Hazil, Akila Gherbi and Amar Hadj arab
Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables, CDER, 16340, Algiers, Algeria
b.taghezouit@gmail.com

Abstract – In this article, we present monitoring and control under LabVIEW for a photovoltaic
water pumping test bench (PVWPTB) installed at Centre de Développement des Energies
Renouvelables (CDER), Algiers, Algeria. The first part of this work deals with the electronic
instrumentation, which includes the wiring, measure and calibration of sensors and control of the
actuators performed by Agilent 34970A, the second part is dedicated to the program development
under LabVIEW environment and design a convivial graphical user-interface to retrieve data
measured by sensors and control the valves mounted on the PVWPTB. The software platform
designed has served as a system of monitoring and control for a PVWPTB automatically with
multiple scenarios. All data obtained from the user-interface were recorded and archived in a
database.

Keywords: Photovoltaic pumping, Instrumentation, Programming, Monitoring, Control, Test

bench,

I. Introduction II. Description of PV Pumping Test bench

Algeria has many isolated areas characterized by low
rates of population in cores dispersed; suffering from
water supply problems for consumption and irrigation.
The photovoltaic (PV) pumping systems [1] present the
ideal solution for these problems [2-4]. The main problem
is to know the operation of the pump which is powered by
a photovoltaic generator.
For this, it is suggested to install and commissioning a
pilot system, this is what we call a PV pumping system
test bench. That bench should be equipped with different
sensors for each variable (such as irradiation, temperature,
pressure, flow, water level, voltage and current) to better
represent operating status and performances [5-9] of PV
pumping system in real time, it will:
• Test and evaluate photovoltaic pumping systems.
• Realize a database for the motor-pump system.
• Select the best pump for each application.
• Modeling photovoltaic pumping systems (PV
module, inverter, pump-motor) [10-13].
Many data acquisition systems have been developed in
order to collect and process such data, as well as monitor
the performance of renewable energy systems under
operation in order to evaluate their performance [14-20].
Data acquisition with the PC uses a combination with
modular hardware and flexible software (LabVIEW or
other programming environment) to turn the PC into a
monitoring system under user-friendly graphical interface
[21-25], and provide the most flexibility, customization,
and integration [26].
The experimental test bench (Fig.1) wad made of
stainless steel and is easily removable. We distinguish the
following parts:
 Water-Well
 Water-air tank
 Pump system LORENTZ PS150C (pump, pump motor
and a controller)
 Repression branch between water-well and water-tank
 Discharge branch which includes the tank return to
well
 Air compressor 15 bar
 Sensors and transducers
 Pneumatic Valves and manual valves
 Control and display panel
 Connection cabinet for external measurements with
additional instrumentation
 The PV array is composed of 30 modules A-75, for a
total output power 2.2 kWp.
 Programmable DC power supply 3kW
 Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition / Switch Unit (Data
Logger) for measure and control
 PC with LabVIEW software.
The management of the tank pressure applied to the
pump, allows us to simulate the heights pumping in the
water-well (2m) going from 0m to 120m, and 0-30 m3/h
for the water flow pump. The pump inside water-well use
as power supply photovoltaic array 0 to 2.2 kW or
programmable DC Power supply 0 to 3kW.
 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016

o Sensors.
o Actuators.
o Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition / Switch Unit
o Agilent 34902A 16 Channel Multiplexer
o Agilent 34903A 20 Channel Actuator/GP Switch
o PC & GPIB-USB cable

The figure 2 represents the system control and data

acquisition remotely using both Agilent 34970A and
LabVIEW under windows.

Fig. 1. PV Water Pumping Test bench picture

III. Instrumentation of PV Pumping

Test bench Fig. 2. Remote control & data acquisition under LabVIEW
The Indispensable elements forming our system of
electronic instrumentation are as follows: In Figure 3 is illustrated the description for a PVWPTB
and location of sensors and Actuators on our system

Fig. 3. Photovoltaic water pumping test bench description synoptic scheme

 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016

III.1. Sensors converted directly into a voltage using precision resistor

TABLE 1. LIST AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SENSORS USED IN PV 250 Ω.
PUMPING TEST BENCH [27]. The measurement of different quantities (table1)
Sensors Channels Sensors type Output
characterizing our test bench is performed by an Agilent
Measured
N° N° quantities [27] Signal 34901A module 20 Channel Multiplexer, these measures
34901 require a good calibration using the information given by
the manufacturer of each sensor or transducer
S1 101 Pressure 0-10m IMT industrie
S2 102 Pressure 0-160m messtechnik 3) Control by Agilent 34903A
3276.69/76.001
S3 103 Tank pressure 0- Likewise, we can control the actuators (table 2)
160m 4-20mA installed in the system, using an Agilent module 34903A
S4 104 Tank Height TecfluidLE-
20 Channel Actuator [28].
70/TR420
S5 105 well Height Pressure sensors
S6 106 DC Voltage Voltage divider 0-5V
IV. Developed Program Under LabVIEW
S8 108 AC Voltage
S7 107 DC Current Hall effect 0-1V The data acquisition with PC uses a combination with
Closed loop modular hardware and flexible software to turn the PC to
S9 109 AC Current a system of supervision defined by the user.
S10 110 Water flow Contecesa 4-20mA This part is based on a software application called
diameter Ø50mm TC50/TC32
S11 111 Water flow LabVIEW [29] that will allow us to recover the data
diameter Ø32mm measured by the sensors and control the actuators.
S12 112 Irradiance on the Reference cell 0-65mV
inclined plane 36 ° (Atersa) IV.1. Data Acquisition program
S13 113 PV module Termocouple (k) (-1)- 5mV
temperature The data acquisition program has been optimized
S14 114 Ambient several times for ensure communication with data logger
temprerature Agilent 34970A, and retrieving data measured through
III.2. Actuators data acquisition module 34901A, the program is organized
following the steps below.
Actuators in this system are pneumatic valves see the
following table:  Communication with instrument & Initialization
 Channel configuration for measurement using SCPI
TABLE 2. LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF PNEUMATIC VALVES USED IN
PVWPTB. instruction
N° N°  Scan & Read all data measurement
valves Channel Description  Decide & convert the character string
34903
V1 201 Pneumatic valve 50mm diameter for branch  Calibration and display
repression 50 mm
V2 202 Pneumatic valve 32mm diameter for branch IV.2. Control program
repression 32 mm
V3 203 pneumatic valve 50 mm diameter of the discharge The SPDT relay inside 34903 control module are
branch controlled remotely via a LabVIEW program (Figure 4)
V4 204 regulation valve air intake inside water-air tank which runs following these steps:
V5 205 regulation valve air exhaust inside water-air tank  Building 20 virtual channels
(V6, V7, V8, V9) are manual valves not controllable  Identify channels control with Boolean values (0 or 1)
 Actuate the relay in position (open or closed) which
III.3. Measure and control with Agilent 34970A corresponds to the ordered channels.
1) Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition / Switch Unit  The actuator control is automatically applied under
The Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition / Switch Unit conditions (true1 close) or (false0open).
shown in (Figure 2) combines the advantages of
measurement and control functions, with accuracy and IV.3. Additional program
multiple options for connecting signals for the systems The additional program is implemented in the main
testing and development [28]. program (Figure 4), it contains the following sub-
A signal at the input of the Datalogger must pass programs for:
through different blocks before being displayed in the  Creation of the waveform and timing
front panel.  Save all measured data in an excel file.
2) Measure by Agilent 34902A  Export images in real time waveform with a format
.BMP.
Before wiring sensors to Datalogger, signals at the
 Automatic control for valves, which depends on the
output sensors with the 4-20 mA analog loop will be
measures.
 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016

Fig. 4. Sample of Graphical program_ Monitoring and Control of a PVWPTB under LabVIEW

V. Results
V.1. Functionality
 Creating a friendly and extensible interface.  Daily wave chart in real-time for measured quantities
 Communication through either GPIB or RS 232.  Remote and auto-control for pneumatic valves.
 Sampling frequency chosen by the user.  Recording data in an Excel file.
 Digital indicators for measured quantities.  Compatible interface. Exe extension.
V.2. Results presentation

Fig. 5. User-interface designed_configuration & system description tab.

 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016

Fig. 6. User-interface _Indicators tab

In this test the pump Lorentz PS150C is powered by six (6) PV modules ATERSA 75w (2s * 3p) installed since
2001, for the test results, as examples here are following figures.

Fig. 7. Waveform_Irradiance Fig. 9. Waveform_Pressure controlled remotely

Fig. 8. Waveform_ given power by PV Module Fig. 10. Waveform_ pump flow rate for present test
 International Conference on Technological Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICTAEE’16.), October 2016
V.3. Discussion
From the results obtained, we note that
 The acquired measurements by different sensors in the
test bench are really the expected results.
 The data acquisition of sensors and the control of
pneumatic valves remotely in real time using the
graphical interface under LabVIEW, is user-friendly
and straightforward.
 The proportionality of the following quantities
successively irradiance, current and power with the
flow rate of the pump.
 The pumping flow rate is proportional to the
manometric pressure.
VI. Conclusion
This work performed under LabVIEW allowed us to:
 Monitor in real time all quantities measured by sensors
installed in the PV system.
 Control the actuators mounted on test bench by one
click on user interface or using automatic mode
 Regulate manometric pressure inside water-air tank
allows to simulate the TMH of the pump
 Test any pump with power less than 3kW from 0 to
120 m
Thereafter all measured data are stored in a database.
The use of the interface developed in LabVIEW is
stretchy for:
 Performances analysis for PV pumping system
 Add the models for each component’s
Electromechanical modeling of motor-pump system
Integration of intelligent algorithms.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank our colleagues from
the Photovoltaic division for their technical help.
Special thanks for A. chouder, A. Bouhanik and
k. Abdeladim for their contribution in this work.
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