ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to describe the 1.6kWp photovoltaic system installed by the Instituto de Tecnología Microelectrónica. The system has been designed to operate as a stand-alone unit. The special feature of this system is not its size but the selection of panels installed and their management and control. Panels of different nominal powers and voltages have been chosen in order to provoke the maximum level of mismatching possible in the system. On the other hand, the connection and control system used allows individual access to each of the panels that make up the generation system, it being possible to connect/disconnect these to and from the system (giving rise to a variable size system of between 94Wp and 1.6kWp), as well as to modify the interconnection between the panels that make up the series branches of the system, or even connect one of the system panels to a measuring line, taking it out of the generation system temporarily, for individual measuring. The management system gathers and stores on a periodic, exhaustive basis, several pieces of data relating to production, configuration and control status. It is hoped that this system will be the support for other work being done in the Instituto de Tecnología Microelectrónica relating to the reliability of stand-alone photovoltaic systems and the minimisation of losses due to the mismatching of panels making up the same system.
