28 June 2012
Solmetric today announced the release of the latest software upgrade for the PV Analyzer, an electrical test solution that combines I-V curve tracing with built-in, predictive PV models, which will be on display at Intersolar North America (booth 8626).
The software upgrade is intended to provide fast and complete performance verification for commissioning and troubleshooting PV arrays, the company says. It verifies array performance under existing irradiance and temperature conditions.
Underlying the v2.0 software’s new features is the Project file, which contains the instrument settings, PV models and measurement data for particular PV installation.
The new Project Wizard feature guides the user to enter the design parameters of the PV system and set up the predictive performance model.
The new Array Navigator feature creates a system tree describing the electrical architecture of the PV system. In the field, measurement data is saved by touching the corresponding location in the system tree.
A new History tab retains the tabular results of up to 20 recent measurements, allowing users to check the consistency of a sequence of string measurements or to compare the results of troubleshooting steps.
Measured I-V curves can now also be translated to Standard Test Conditions and displayed alongside the measured I-V trace.
A Wireless Sensor Kit is available as an option to the PV Analyzer for measuring the irradiance and the module backside temperature. This kit is used for commissioning of commercial PV systems; the company says this saves labor costs and improves correlation between the sensor values and the associated I-V curves. Tighter correlation reduces the variation in measured versus predicted system performance caused by rapidly changing environmental conditions. This in turn provides a clearer picture of the uniformity of string performance across the array, as well as better insight into the nature of any performance issues. In version 2.0 software, every measurement screen also displays wirelessly transmitted irradiance and temperature, making it easy for the user to “dodge” clouds by triggering I-V measurements only when the irradiance is stable.
The v2.0 software will be available for free download for existing PVA users on 1 August.
