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MICROGRID MONITORING AND SUPERVISION: WEB-BASED SCADA

APPROACH

Conference Paper · January 2021

DOI: 10.1049/icp.2021.1399

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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42835-021-00762-0

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Micro‑grid Monitoring and Supervision: Web‑based SCADA Approach

Mohamed A. Ali1 · Mahmoud M. Barakat1 · Masoud M. Abokhalaf1 · Yasmin H. Fadel1 · Mohamed Kandil1 ·
Mariam W. Rasmy1 · Osama N. Ali1 · Ahmad H. Besheer2 · Hassan M. Emara1 · Ahmed Bahgat1

Received: 15 February 2020 / Revised: 6 September 2020 / Accepted: 14 April 2021

© This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2021

Abstract
Owing to the widespread use of the micro-grid concept to serve many real life applications, the main concern of this paper
is to monitor, evaluate and manage the operational performance of an existent, already installed micro-grid that consists of
On & Off grid PV systems in addition to the main grid supply. With the aid of customized web based SCADA system fully
designed by authors, the performance evaluation of the proposed micro-grid is carried out in terms of energy consumption,
power quality indices and energy cost based on Egypt’s energy current tariff. The designed system helps in both micro-grid
status monitoring as well as load sharing between the main grid supply and the off grid PV energy system. The data of the
on grid PV energy system are accessed and collected online directly from the inverter web server instead of downloading
them offline from the PV inverter. In this case, data are analyzed with a reasonable refresh rate, which saves time and effort.
Remote access platform is developed securely through a multi-level security authentication and strong data encryption using
the OpenVPN protocol under the Dynamic Domain Name System service. Smart wired and wireless technology—used as
integrated sensing devices to the developed SCADA system—enables easy system installation and running cost saving.
Finally, to validate the collected data from the newly SCADA designed monitoring system, a performance characterization
for the on grid PV system following international standards of yields calculations is carried out for 3 months in 2019.

Keywords Photovoltaic · Microgrid · Remote access · SCADA

1 Introduction Distributed energy sources, energy storage systems and

Recently, the large-scale deployment of renewable energy
resources to mitigate the environmental concerns and
achieve sustainable development led to a drastic change
in the ways of operating and managing electrical grids.
micro-grid technologies are among electrical networks’ new
concepts and approaches. For example, a micro-grid mainly
features a self-sustained attributes that enables serving its
electrical demand autonomously even in case of grid failure.
In such case, an energy management system is essential for

* Ahmad H. Besheer Osama N. Ali

ahmed.tawfeek@esri.usc.edu.eg osamanady761996@gmail.com
Mohamed A. Ali Hassan M. Emara
m.a.elgendy@hotmail.com hmrashad@gmail.com
Mahmoud M. Barakat Ahmed Bahgat
mahm0dbarakat@gmail.com abahgat@gmail.com
Masoud M. Abokhalaf 1
Electrical Power and Machines Deptartment, Faculty
masoud107mm@gmail.com
of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Yasmin H. Fadel 2
Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University
yasminhamdy118@gmail.com
of Sadat City, Sadat City, Egypt
Mohamed Kandil
mohamedkandil399@gmail.com
Mariam W. Rasmy
mariamwilliam140@gmail.com

13
Vol.:(0123456789)

optimal energy flow and use of resources in intelligent, reli-
able, and coordinated manner.
Many researches have discussed different topologies and
architectures of the micro-grid, which generally consists of
a number of conventional and renewable energy resources in
addition to electrical loads. The design of energy monitoring
and management system for micro-grids has been exten-
sively discussed as well. Abouarkoub et al. in [1] assumed a
system that contains an AC generator, PV system, a battery
pack with a charger controller and a utility grid. A fuzzy
logic algorithm is proposed to improve the performance
of this micro-grid system. A SCADA system to monitor a
micro-grid that includes inverters, batteries, solar panels,
biomass and geothermal generators with power meters to
monitor and collect status data to ensure health of a micro-
grid system’s components is built in [2]. Poonahela et al.
in [3] presented an interactive monitoring interface based
on LabVIEW software for a micro-grid that contains PV
system, wind turbine, diesel generator and battery units. The
proposed micro-grid and its management system enable the
operator to change certain parameters to allow working in
several modes and to observe the interaction between the
components involved. Reddy et al. in [4] performed a behav-
ioral simulation of each individual component in a proposed
micro-grid. The paper suggests using programmable logic
controller (PLC) and SCADA instead of conventional mod-
eling and simulation tool of MATLAB. Accordingly, simu-
lation speed, simulation span are enhanced. Moreover, the
proposed method possesses high fidelity to design, which
supports communication with real time hardware. Corchado
et al. in [5] implemented an architecture based on a multi-
agent approach on single-board computers; each agent is
responsible for a certain area of the building. Unlike com-
mon solutions, it is designed for end-users to interact with
the grid. All agents interact with each other to store the data
and to achieve the integrated energy management plan. This
modular architecture could not be easy to be extended in
future micro-grid expansions. All of the above mentioned
research works are based on monitoring and analyzing the
collected data in a centralized manner where the operator
should exist in front of the SCADA master station normally
in the control room. Meanwhile, the remote access monitor-
ing approach is considered to be useful for such application
to enhance the reliability and the operability of the SCADA
based monitoring and management system for micro-grid.
Many researchers have worked in the internet based remote
monitoring approach; one of the common proposed archi-
tectures is to deploy a network gateway to connect external
clients to network resources which has a static public Inter-
net Protocol (IP) address. On the other hand, Global System
for Mobile (GSM) modems are used in cellular based remote
monitoring through General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
by installing a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card at
13
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
each remote station. For example, Saito et al. in [6] imple-
mented a home gateway architecture, which incorporates
various home network technologies. An external client is
connected to the local network through the link layer (layer
2 in the OSI model). In [7], Álvarez et al. developed a web
based SCADA system using the OPC standard for commu-
nication and a mash-up web interface that eases customiza-
tion and getting access via simple web browser. Although,
this approach provided a convenient multiple clients’ access
environment through internet explorer web client, it is not
secure enough and the data could be amenable to hackers.
Batista et al. in [8] proposed a hybrid micro-grid in an edu-
cational building, which is remotely controlled by Arduino
micro-controller board with relays via internet. Connected
loads are fed from the hybrid PV system or directly from the
utility grid. Electrical measurements are recorded such as
voltage and energy flow by the charger controllers and are
handled by the Arduino. Recently, an internet of things (IoT)
based monitoring system approach is used in [9], to evalu-
ate and enhance the performance of a PV based micro-grid.
Web clients can connect to site server locally or remotely
via internet. Alexey et al. [10] presented the features of
SCADA systems application and the IoT technologies. It is
shown that the use of web-based SCADA provides most of
the requirements for such systems and is a scalable solution
at all its levels.
Using GPRS communication technology, a secure
point-to-point connection with no possibility for any third
party intrusion for a remote wireless monitoring system is
achieved in [11]. Under the same direction of data security,
a secure multi remote terminals connection for a wireless
remote monitoring system based on the GPRS to connect the
geographically separated remote units to the central interface
station is achieved in [12].
To enhance the SCADA web server remote access secu-
rity through internet, Zhang et al. in [13] developed an
internet home automation system using a web server and
Dynamic Domain Name System (DDNS) service. In this
manner, a fixed host name is provided to the external cli-
ents for getting access instead of having a static IP address.
Furthermore, Hongping et al. in [14] assured all internal
network resources security via accessing only the web server
without accessing the local network in a proposed archi-
tecture of a web server based central monitoring node. In
[15], a distributed control system (DCS) is alternatively used
as a data acquisition system for monitoring and control of
a university campus micro-grid consists of two combined
heat and power generators. Using an IoT enabled open
sourced software (BEMOSSTM), they controlled the load
connected to the micro-grid and managed energy consump-
tion. The DCS unit is remotely accessed for monitoring
and control through internet and the security is assured by
proper authentication and access control. Lawrence et al. in
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
[16] presented the development of a low cost, open source
SCADA system for solar PV system monitoring and remote
control. The proposed SCADA system is based on the Inter-
net of Things (IoT) SCADA architecture which incorporates
web services with the conventional SCADA for a robust
supervisory control and monitoring.
The developed platform in this paper features interoper-
ability attribute and avoids common drawbacks in the lit-
erature such as:
• Lack of parameters storage capability for long-term
analysis for more than one year; as the majority of the
used energy monitoring and management platforms are
single-board computers based with limited built in stor-
age memory and limited visualization customizability.
• Non-fault tolerant energy monitor platform and no redun-
dancy architecture for energy management servers.
• Less robust operation when using non-industrial control-
lers such as Arduino.
• High initial cost on implementing the remote access
architecture when using geographically separated GSM
remote units at each place.
• High running costs of remote data transmission charging
when connecting remote clients through the link layer
(layer 2 in the OSI model).
In this paper, an energy status monitoring and manage-
ment platform for micro-grid reliable operation is developed
through connecting multi-vendor products installed at differ-
ent points of the micro-grid to single platform using standard
communication protocols. Instead of accessing the platform
as a conventional SCADA client, all SCADA servers and
screens are deployed to the network web server in the same
machine; this facilitated accessing the platform through a
web browser locally or remotely. A secure cost saving inter-
net connection between external clients (such as stakehold-
ers, building administrators and operators of the micro-grid)
and the main network webserver (SCADA master station) is
developed to increase the operability of the designed status
monitoring system. An OpenVPN server is setup based on
Dynamic Domain Name System service for managing access
of remote clients if they match all credentials and certifi-
cates. This establishes an encrypted secure private tunnel
between clients and the webserver.
To characterize the performance of the proposed micro-
grid under real climatic conditions, an operational perfor-
mance investigation is performed following the IEC-61724
standard [17]. This investigation is mainly based on the
computation of performance indices calculated from differ-
ent energy yields and losses, (see for instance: [18–25]).
The investigation depends on the collected and stored data
through the designed SCADA system.
The key advantages of this work are as follows:
• Designing a reliable SCADA system that can be accessed
from anywhere and at any time for monitoring and analy-
sis purposes of micro-grid generation system.
• Designing a wide customizable SCADA application
which enables integrating multi-vendors’ products into
a single web interface with an easy future expansion edit-
ing with an open software that enables server redundancy
architecture.
• A relevant analysis and planning tool for evaluating the
operational performance of the studied micro-grid, hence
ensures the health of the system components and assists
in future installation of such novel concept.
• The ability of robust operation and data storage over long
durations using smart meters across different nodes of the
micro-grid.
• A load-sharing algorithm via the designed SCADA sys-
tem is adopted to relieve stress condition on the electrical
network and to provide power exchange pricing optimiza-
tion.
• The proposed architecture for remote access has consid-
erable less initial and running cost. It also provides more
security for the data transmission.
2 The Proposed System
The micro-grid under study is composed of three power
sources namely on-grid PV system with nominal capacity
of 5.1 kW, off-grid PV system with nominal capacity of
1.1 kW in addition to the 3 phase main supply. The on-grid
PV system consists of one PV array of 20 polycrystalline
modules each 255 W, grid-tied inverter while the off-grid PV
system includes one PV array of 4 polycrystalline modules
each 255 W, 500Ah, 24 V battery system, 24 V charger con-
troller and standalone inverter. All power sources are coor-
dinated to feed different kinds of electrical loads situated in
DCS laboratory in building 9 at the faculty of Engineering,
Cairo University, Egypt. Both PV energy systems are erected
on the rooftop of the same building. Three different power/
energy meters are also erected in the proposed system for
the sake of monitoring and control. Firstly, SIEMENS SEN-
TRON PAC3200 energy meter [26] is installed directly after
the KOSTAL/PIKO on grid inverter [27] to monitor differ-
ent variables in the on grid PV system. Secondly, PM 710
power meter [28] is installed on the main feeder of the utility
grid to measure the overall consumption of the building 9
and identify the direction of the power flow to and from the
utility grid. Finally, a smart wireless energy sensor (Power
Tag) [29] is installed on the local distribution board of the
DCS lab to only identify the totalized consumption of this
lab. The technical specs for the all used devices and the two
PV energy systems are found in [18]. The system is also
13

equipped with various types of protection devices. All used
meters are functioned as the field sensors to collect data for
monitoring and supervisory controlling purposes via a com-
plete designed SCADA system. Figure 1 shows the proposed
micro-grid with different auxiliary devices.
3 Monitoring and Management
of the Proposed Micro‑grid
3.1 Centralized SCADA System
In this section of the paper, a complete design for SCADA
system is introduced. The designed SCADA system is built
to monitor different parameters of the on grid PV system,
various reading of PM 710 power meter device, SENTRON
PAC 3200 energy meter and the power tag wireless energy
sensor. The different collected and displayed micro-grid
parameters are shown in Table 1.
Although there are two ways to collect and monitor the
data of the system which are based on either a dedicated
software that can connect to the KOSTAL/PIKO inverter
via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) communication
protocol or the webpage of the inverter itself, the designed
SCADA system replaced both of them and offered couple
of advantages. It provides continuous access and display
Fig. 1  Micro-grid single line diagram
13
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
for system’s data in a faster and more efficient manner.
Furthermore, it shows detailed and centralized parameters
display. The collection and the display of the data are facil-
itated by the use of “PowerSCADA expert 8.1” software
[30]. The general communication layout for the suggested
SCADA system is shown in Fig. 2.
3.1.1 Communication of KOSTAL/PIKO Inverter with SCADA
Webserver
The data collection process in the designed SCADA sys-
tem of the proposed micro-grid is mainly based on estab-
lishing proper communication links between the SCADA
server (master station) and various measuring sensors (on
grid inverter, PM 710, Sentron Pac 3200 and the power
tag). These sensors have the ability to measure and trans-
mit the reading of number of useful parameters in the pro-
posed micro-grid. Thanks to the intrinsic capabilities of
the KOSTAL/PIKO inverter which can collect more than
19 parameters for the on grid PVES. The collection and
archiving of these data is important to evaluate the opera-
tional performance of the micro-grid as shown in section
(last section). In our design, although the KOSTAL/PIKO
inverter doesn’t communicate through Modbus TCP/IP
protocol, the problem of getting online data to the SCADA
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Table 1  Main measured micro- Parameters Unit Parameters Unit

grid parameters
PM 710 (on the main feeder) Sentron Pac 3200 (on the AC side of the
inverter)
AC current/phase A AC voltage V
AC voltage/phase V AC current A
Active power W Active power kW
Reactive power VAR Reactive power KVAR
Apparent power VA Apparent power KVA
Power factor 0.000–1 Power factor %
Active energy kWh THD in voltage %
Reactive energy VARh THD in current %
Apparent energy VaAh Active energy kWh
THD in voltage Max/min Reactive energy kvarh
THD in current Max/min Apparent energy kVAh
Power Tag Kostal PIKO Inverter
Lab current A AC and DC voltages V
Lab voltage V AC and DC currents A
Lab active power W Ambient and cell temperatures °C
Lab reactive power VAR In plane radiation W/m2
apparent power VA Active power W
Lab power factor % Daily and total active energy kWh
Lab energy measure Wh

system continuously from an HTTP based device is solved.
To access the data of the inverter, the following procedures
are followed:
1. Access the stored data of the inverter through its web-
page using its IP address.
2. Enable Visual Basic Macro in an Excel file to retrieve
these data from the Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML) file of the accessed inverter webpage.
3. Transfer these accessed data to a spread sheet in the
excel file.
4. Use DDERead function in the SCADA software to trans-
mit the required information to the SCADA database.
5. The SCADA software displays the data in any suitable
form.
The sample rate of the measured data using excel sheet
method is 10 s which is faster than the 10 min sample rate
of the stored data in the inverter memory. This is a one-way
static communication which is read once from the appli-
cation per call. To read the useful data dynamically, this
function is called only during inverter active hours at a rate
of 10 s at which the data are to be updated. To filter useful
data from the HTML file in a single polling, useful HTML
elements are extracted by their tag name using the (getEle-
mentsByTagName) function. Figure 3 shows the block
diagram of the prescribed communication cycle between
the KOSTAL/PIKO inverter and the SCADA webserver.
Figure 4 shows the real time data being displayed on the
webserver then extracted to the excel sheet and finally
uploaded to the SCADA database to be displayed at the
SCADA graphic display as shown in the top right of the
figure.
3.1.2 Communication of other Devices with SCADA
Webserver
In addition to the data extracted from the on grid PV
inverter, the designed SCADA system communicates
with other measuring sensors such as PM 710, Sentron
Pac 3200 and power tag to collect other useful data that
help in monitoring the daily load profile of building 9. The
installation of the PM 710 power meter on the building
distribution board with the necessary protection breakers
is shown in Fig. 5. The communication link between this
meter and the SCADA server is established through Mod-
bus RTU serial communication protocol via a twisted pair
RS-485 cable. A gateway (EGX100 Bridge) is also used to
convert RS485 with master/slave media access to Ethernet
with random media access to facilitate the required con-
nection to the SCADA server.
The Sentron Pac 3200 smart energy meter is installed at
the AC terminals of the KOSTAL/PIKO inverter to provide
various PV AC measurements and to calculate the on grid PV
energy sold at the end of each month. The communication

13
 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Fig. 2  System communication

layout

Fig. 3  Data flow between

inverter and SCADA webserver

link between this meter and the SCADA server is established
through Modbus TCP/IP via Ethernet cable.
Finally, the energy sensor (Power Tag) that featured
compact size and easy installation procedures is installed
at the base of the main circuit breaker located at the DCS
lab’s distribution board as shown in the Fig. 6. A wireless
concentrator (Smartlink) [31] is used to retrieve the sensor
measurements over the wireless Zigbee protocol and to pro-
vide these data to the SCADA system.
3.2 Remote Access Via Web Client Topology
This section introduces a cost saving secure internet connec-
tion between remote external clients (not in front of master

13
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Fig. 4  Co-ordination in inverter readings among all interfaces

Fig. 5  Main feeder power meter panel Fig. 6  Power tag at the main lab circuit breaker

13

station) such as stakeholders, building administrators and
operators and the SCADA server. The proposed commu-
nication link is based on DDNS service where an Open-
VPN server is setup for granting access to remote clients if
they match all credentials and certificates. It establishes an
encrypted secure private tunnel between clients in remote
locations and the SCADA webserver. The operating sys-
tem used is Windows server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1 while
the SCADA server and the Web server used are licensed
PowerSCADA Expert v8.1 and Internet Information Ser-
vices (IIS 7) respectively. The server machine series is Dell
PowerEdge R720. The approach proposed to establish the
required remote access to the SCADA system is performed
as follows:
1. The OpenVPN server grants clients connection request
after validating the client data and establishes an
encrypted private tunnel.
2. A network firewall is deployed to block any external
incoming malicious connections and to only allow the
external client specific request port to be forwarded to
the OpenVPN server as in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7  Remote access architecture
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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
3. Once the client is connected to the OpenVPN network,
he is able to access the server resources, which is mainly
the web server if it is on the same machine as the Open-
VPN server like in our case.
4. Some additional network resources need to be accessed
by OpenVPN clients as an alternative for the incompati-
bility of the web client on other platforms than windows;
server internal routing commands are set up to route data
traffic between the selected devices in the local network
and OpenVPN clients who are in the OpenVPN net-
work, which are both two different networks. As with
the mobile IoT applications.
5. In regard to the needed security level in such com-
munication channel, the OpenSSL available ciphers
to encrypt data and control channels is used based on
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security
(TLS) for key exchange (layer 6 in the OSI model).
6. Moreover, an additional Hash-based Message Authen-
tication Code (HMAC) packet authentication feature is
added as an extra layer of security.
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Fig. 8  Web server system architecture

Instead of client access through traditional SCADA with specific OpenVPN protocols to get users to subscribe in
installing the SCADA software prerequisite, a web client their higher-priced services.
access is introduced locally (within the local network) or • When connecting OpenVPN clients to some LAN
remotely (outside the local network). Accessing our SCADA resources, linking through layer 3 in the Open System
system through a web browser will be done by establishing
a deployment of the SCADA servers (Alarms server, Trend
server, Report server, I/O server) which will be the project
node and storing it in the network web server with all config-
ured SCADA interfaces. Figure 8 illustrates this architecture
as following:

Remark 1

• The proposed approach Makes use of the already existing

internet connection in the DCS lab via the Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service as a media of
connection with remote clients.
• The OpenVPN runs over User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which makes
it a more desirable solution than Internet Protocol Secu-
rity (IPsec) where an internet service provider may block

Fig. 9  Windows remote openVPN client

13

Fig. 10  Android remote Open-
VPN client
Interconnection (OSI) model (Network layer) is used by
routing configuration to only route the intended traffic
and reduce traffic overhead in the OpenVPN tunnel.
• With routing configuration, OpenVPN is supported
by plenty of platforms (e.g. Windows, Android, IOS,
Linux), while bridging configuration (Layer 2 /link layer)
or tap mode are not supported in both android and IOS.
In this section, the remote external clients are proposed
to be a home PC running on windows 10 and an Android
phone. Both of them get its internet connection through a
home gateway and cellular data respectively. Figures 9 and
10 show the open OpenVPN connections for the windows
and Android clients. Three devices are selected (SmartLink,
on-grid inverter and EGX100) to be accessed by the pre-
vious two remote access clients. Figures 11 and 12 dem-
onstrate these devices tabs, which are opened next to each
other in the windows client and in cascade manner in the
android client.
Fig. 11  Selected network
devices web interfaces on
windows
13
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
4 Results
4.1 Micro‑grid Parameters Visualization
A single line diagram of the proposed micro-grid is shown
on SCADA page in Fig. 13. A quasi-instantaneous status
monitoring of some of the collected parameters in Table 1
are also shown in Fig. 14. the trends express the current,
voltage and power of the on grid PV system using the
designed SCADA. Four SCADA screens for KOSTAL/PIKO
inverter, PM 710 power meter, SENTRON PAC 3200 energy
meter and the wireless power tag energy sensor are shown
in Fig. 15.
The daily load curve for Building 9 on May 21th 2019
is displayed on SCADA screen as shown in Fig. 16. The
building’s loads consumption is almost constant at night
between 6 PM and 6 AM, as all the halls are closed and
only some of the loads–mainly computers- at labs are
working. At 8 pm it is noticed that the direction of the
power is reversed, because the PV system starts to gener-
ate power to the network. The Building’s Peak consump-
tion is occurred during the time from 4 to 5 p.m. The
Building’s minimum consumption is occurred during the
time from 1 to 2 p.m.
Remark 2
• The negative portion of the building load curve expresses
the amount of the excessive generated energy from the
on grid PVES as a part of the micro-grid and sold to the
utility grid.
• The maximum and the minimum building’s energy con-
sumptions are inversely related to the amount of energy
generated from the on grid PVES.
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
Fig. 12  Selected network devices web interfaces on android
Fig. 13  SCADA micro-grid single line diagram
A monthly summary report on the power injected and
consumed of the utility grid is designed in the SCADA
system and shown in Fig. 17. This provides better under-
standing of the productivity of energy generation systems
installed in such building compared to its consumption;
this can be helpful in determining how dependent the
building is on the utility grid and how to take forward
steps towards sustainability by sizing future micro-grid
expansions. The report also exhibits some power quality
indices such as max total harmonic distortion (THD) in
each phase of the main feeder of the utility grid and the
maximum phase voltage.
These indices are very useful and necessary to main-
tain stable power supply performance and improve the
power quality of the system. The monthly total energy,
the monthly peak demand and the monthly bill value based
on the Egyptian electricity tariff are included in this report
to get the building administrators always informed of how
they are accounted in their bill.
On the left side of the figure, a bar chart shows the sold
and consumed energy on a monthly basis. The values of the
instantaneous total active power are extracted upon a daily
event specified on the SCADA application. Those values are
used to calculate both the daily average of the positive values
and the daily average of the negative values. Hence, the total
daily sold and consumed energy values can be calculated
and aggregated to previous values of the same month. A
comparison study among those months is carried out in the
(Micro-Grid Performance Indices) section; where system
yields and losses in each month have a significance on the
amount of consumed/sold energy in that month.
The bottom right side of the figure shows the tariff of the
month to be updated daily. The building consumption tariff
is calculated using the net active energy recorded by the
power meter, which is automatically reset at the beginning
of each month.
4.2 Automatic Load Sharing
This section of the paper is intended for the management of
the energy flowed in the micro-grid. The main concern is
to relieve the stress condition of the main grid particularly
in peak period by automatically transfer some of the DCS
lab loads to be fed from the off grid PV system. A PLC of
type Modicon M221 and two contactors TeSys D are used
to emulate the role of automatic transfer switch (ATS). The
emulated ATS hardware circuit is shown in Fig. 18. The PLC
is also monitored and controlled via the proposed SCADA
server. The PLC is communicated with the SCADA through
Ethernet as a physical layer using Modbus TCP/IP protocol.
The main utility grid and the off grid PV system are coor-
dinated to serve feeding the load continuously. The main
objectives of the PLC logic are two folded. Firstly, to keep
the battery charged and secondly, to serve the lab load at
all time.
Figure 19 demonstrates the process of the proposed con-
trol algorithm as follows:
1. In normal case, in the early morning, the off grid system
is managed to charge the battery and the load is served
from the main grid.
2. At the first time stamp during the increase of the grid
loading exceeding the 9 kW barrier, as the PV injected
13

Fig. 14  Current, voltage, power trends
power is decreasing. A total load of 4 kW is released
from the grid by the means of load shedding of the addi-
tional air conditioner of 3 kW and feeding a portion of
lab loads from the 1 kW off grid system.
3. The off grid PV system continues to feed the load for 5 h
(Egyptian solar peak hours) to discharge all the energy
captured from the sun during the day. In such case, this
will alleviate the load during the peak period.
4. Afterwards, when the load is 5 kW or below, the off grid
PV system is disconnected and all the loads are fed back
from the main grid.
4.3 Performance Evaluation
This section represents operational performance investiga-
tion for the proposed micro-grid particularly the on grid
PVES. This investigation is performed based on computed
performance indices following international standards.
These performance Indices are calculated using the proposed
SCADA based status monitoring. For the sake of brevity,
sample of data collected and stored in the designed SCADA
is presented. Based on these monitored system’s variables,
the results of the calculation are only shown below. The for-
mula and the detailed calculation procedures can be found
in [18].
4.4 Micro‑grid Status Monitoring
Radiation, ambient and cell temperatures trends are dis-
played in SCADA screens as shown in Figs. 20 and 21 for
July 20th. Time versus DC voltage with radiation is pre-
sented in Fig. 22 For July 21th and DC and AC currents
variation along with time are all presented in Figs. 23 and 24
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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
for July 17th. Finally, the daily variation of AC output power
and the radiation are plotted in Fig. 25 For August 5th.
There is a direct relation between the radiation and the
difference between cell and ambient temperatures in Figs. 20
and 21. This relation factor depends on the Nominal Operat-
ing Cell Temperature (NOCT) parameter, which is defined
by the PV cell manufacturer.
When referring to Fig. 22 at sunrise, when radiation
builds up, the open circuit voltage increases simultaneously.
The on-grid inverter starts its operation when the voltage
across the PV panels reaches the cut-off value around 650 V.
When the inverter starts Maximum Power Point Track-
ing (MPPT), the DC voltage across PV panels drops to the
MPPT value. The on-grid inverter adjusts this voltage oper-
ating point along the day until sunset.
In Figs. 23 and 24, both DC and AC currents take the
shape of the solar radiation along the day.
There is a direct relation between output power and radia-
tion as they both share the same pattern as in Fig. 25.
4.4.1 Micro‑grid Performance Indices
In this section, the operational performance of the micro-
grid is evaluated based on different energy quantities gener-
ated from the on grid PV inverter webserver and collected
by the developed excel sheet. In this excel sheet where the
PV database exist, simple calculations are executed on these
data to obtain and visualize micro-grid performance Indi-
ces on charts. The monthly output energy of the PV array
“EDC” and the total monthly-injected energy into the grid
from the PV system “EAC” for the period of three months
spring season of 2019 are shown in Fig. 26. Based on these
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
Fig. 15  SCADA real time parameters display from different metering devices
energy values, different monthly system yield quantitates
(array “Ya”, reference “Yr” and final yield “Yf”) are calcu-
lated and shown in Fig. 27. Hence, different monthly sys-
tem’s losses quantitates (captures and system losses) are
also computed and a comparison between final yield “Yf”,
capture losses “Lc”, and system losses “Ls” are also shown in
Fig. 28. finally, the monthly performance index that reflects
how ideal the micro-grid operates is shown in Fig. 29.
Remark 3
• In Jun-19 the Y
­ r was high which means that the radiation
was good but this was not completely reflected on the Y ­ f
or ­Ya
• the capture losses in this month is high, this means that
the inverter was not working continuously in that month
due to AC grid absence in vacations as in Fig. 26 and 27.
• The performance ratio for that month decreased as a result
of the capture losses did not reflect on the system DC and
AC energies.
This figure shows the monthly performance ratio for the
PVES during the studied period. It describes how close a PV
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 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Fig. 16  The relation between the PV generated power and the power of the main feeder

Fig. 17  Building summary report

system performs in an ideal manner. The minimum perfor- 5 Conclusion

mance ratio of the system (PR = 0.53) was achieved in June
due to the increase in the overall system losses. While the
maximum PR equals 0.84 was achieved in April due to the
improvement of both the capture losses and the inverter effi-
ciency.table
This paper evaluates the operational performance of a
micro-grid (MG) consists of On and Off grid PV systems
plus the grid supply. This MG is designed to serve the

13
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

electrical loads demand in the DCS lab located in build-

ing 9 faculty of engineering, Cairo University. This paper
presents a fully designed micro-grid system consists of
5.1 kW on grid and 1.1 kW off grid PV energy systems
in the presence of main utility grid to serve the electrical
loads demand in the DCS lab located in building 9 fac-
ulty of engineering, Cairo university. The paper is mainly
focused on designing a web based SCADA system for the
purposes of status monitoring and energy management
for the proposed micro-grid. The data of the on grid PV
system is collected then analysed online and a historian
trend is shown in a designed SCADA system with a rea-
sonable refresh rate. The SCADA development serves
as a simple and easy to install planning and monitoring
system. It also outperforms the web server capabilities of
Fig. 18  The emulated ATS hardware setup

Fig. 19  Load sharing management process

Fig. 20  Solar radiation Fig. 21  Ambient and cell temperature

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Fig. 22  Time versus DC voltage with radiation
Fig. 23  Daily variation of DC currents
the system inverter and collects the data in a very short
sampling period (10 s. instead of 10 min.). A cost sav-
ing secure internet connection between external clients
and the main network webserver is further developed to
increase the reliability/operability of the newly designed
monitoring system. Based on Dynamic Domain Name
System service, an OpenVPN server is setup for granting
access to remote clients if they match all credentials and
certificates. By this way, the designed SCADA system can
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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology
Fig. 24  Daily variation of AC currents
be accessed from anywhere and at any time for monitoring
and analysis purposes of micro-grid generation system.
Based on the designed SCADA system, a validation for
the SCADA based collected data is performed. The opera-
tional performance of the proposed micro-grid under real
climatic condition of Cairo is explored with performance
ratio ranged from 70 to 90%. Finally, the key features of
the developed web based SCADA platform that highlight
the paper contribution is demonstrated in Table 2.
Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Fig. 25  Daily variation of AC output power and the radiation

Fig. 28  Comparison between final Yield “Yf”, capture losses “Lc” and
system losses “Ls”
Fig. 26  PV array energy “EDC” and the injected energy to the grid
“EAC”

Fig. 27  Variation of monthly system yields

Fig. 29  Monthly performance ratio of the micro-grid

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 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Table 2  Developed platform key features

Aspect Contribution

System installation Easy installation as system equipment can be added to conventional power switchboards with minimal replace-
ments and additional wiring as with the (Powertag energy sensor)
System transforms conventional grid elements to be smart by modelling and interacting with their information
through added equipment as with all meters and controllable contactors
Cost Cost saving by using one central unit (PLC) which is responsible for implementing the load sharing algorithm and
sending the control orders to the simple switching elements (Contactors)
Cost saving by using an open source software in the SCADA visualization platform
Cost saving by using an open protocol (OpenVPN) in implementing a secure remote access to the platform
utilizing the existing ADSL internet connection without purchasing of additional network units or any service
subscription
Interoperability System features multi-vendor products (Schneider Electric, Siemens, Kostal Piko) and integrates them all using
standard communication protocols (Modbus, ZigBee, HTTP)
Operation sustainability Platform is operating 24 h a day, seven days a week with the functionality to self-restore after a power interruption
Convenience Platform features all system parameters in a single SCADA web interface as with (Incorporating inverter web
server measurements in the SCADA interface)
Providing remote access to external clients using either (Windows, Android or IOS)
Security A two layer 256-bit encryption protects the local network from any external intrusion by the (OpenVPN) protocol
A hierarchical authentication is setup in the network master web server to manage web clients access
A hierarchical authentication is setup in the SCADA server to manage visualizing or controlling micro-grid assets
Extendibility Platform can be extended for future micro-grid extensions by adding more devices, switches and configuring their
parameters and screens in the SCADA software
Safe resources management A load sharing algorithm is implemented to maintain utility grid loading limit, batteries state of charge and impor-
tant loads service continuity
Equipment Maintenance Predictive maintenance programs can be scheduled according to the performance evaluation conducted on a
monthly basis
Loads malfunctioning issues can be addressed from recording the power quality indices at different nodes of the
micro-grid

Acknowledgements This work was conducted in the Distributed Con-
trol Systems (DCS) lab. at faculty of Engineering, Cairo University as
a part of the research outcomes of the grant no. STDF2663 funded by
Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF) in Egypt.
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Mohamed A. Ali received his B.Sc. from the Electrical Power &
Machines Department (EPMD) at Cairo University (CA) in 2019. He
is pursuing his M.Sc. degree in the Energy Management Research at
Cairo University.
Mahmoud M. Barakat received his B.Sc. from the (EPMD) at CA in
2019. He is currently working as a SCADA Operator Engineer at the
National Advanced Transmission & Automation Centre (NATA) and
pursuing his MSc degree.
Masoud M. Abokhalaf received his B.Sc. from the (EPMD) at CA in
2019. He is currently working as an Industrial Automation Engineer.
Yasmin H. Fadel received her B.Sc. from the Electrical Energy Engi-
neering Department at Cairo University in 2019. She is currently work-
ing as Tendering Engineer in the field of construction and pursuing
her M.Sc.
Mohamed Kandil received his B.Sc. from the Electrical Power &
Machines Department at Cairo University in 2019. He is currently
working as an Industrial Automation Engineer.
Mariam W. Rasmy received her B.Sc. from the EPMD at CA in 2019.
She is currently working as R & D Engineer. Her research interest is
smart city solutions.
Osama N. Ali received hid B.Sc from EPMD at CA in 2019. He is
currently an Engineer First Lieutenant at the Egyptian Armed Forces.
Ahmad H. Besheer is currently a professor of Electrical Power Systems
at University of Sadat City (USC) and serves as a manger of Technol-
ogy Innovation Commercialization Office at USC. He is SMIEEE. He
has been granted University Award for Scientific Research Excellence
in 2019 as well as many prizes for international publishing.
Hassan M. Emara is currently a professor of Automatic Control &
Systems at Cairo University. He has been granted many awards for
distinct research and international publishing from CA and Academy
for Scientific Research & Technology, Egypt.
Ahmed Bahgat is LMIEEE and professor of Automatic Control at
EPMD, CA, Egypt. He received Dr. Ing. from the Technical University
of Dresden, Germany in 1978. He was the vice dean of research and
the director of the Energy Research Center in the Faculty of Engineer-
ing CA. He is the author & coauthor of 105 publications and PI of 74
research projects in industrial and electrical power areas.
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