Research on an IoT-based Smart Monitoring System for Distribution Transformers in Solar PV Plants

The growing demand for renewable energy sources has led to a significant increase in the number of solar power systems in the desert. However, reliable operation of these systems in such harsh environments requires continuous and accurate monitoring. This paper introduces a smart monitoring system based on Internet of things (IoT) for distribution transformers in solar photovoltaic (PV) plants. The proposed system adopts both optical fiber sensors and traditional electronic sensors in order to collect data including temperature, vibration, ultrasonic and partial discharge. As for data transmission, a wireless transmission system featuring tree- structured topology based on LoRa is built, which has high reliability. The collected data is analyzed using multi-class support vector machine (SVM) model with time-frequency parameters, which can determine the health status of the transformers and identify potential faults if any. This system provides a new perspective for the monitoring and maintenance of photovoltaic power transformers.