Assessing Photovoltaic Power Uncertainty in Low-income Smart Home Energy Management using Geographic Information Systems Data

Abstract

Abstract Solar-powered homes can be an optimal solution for the lack of continuous power sources problem in initial low-income communities. However, the challenge of PV uncertainty can make it difficult to coordinate this vital solar energy in real-time. This paper proposes a new, low-cost solution for assessing the uncertainty of photovoltaic power generation in smart home energy management systems. The proposed index, inspired by the well-known clearness index, is an adaptive deterministic indicator that only requires free Geographic Information System GIS models and PV power measurement, without the need for expensive high-tech controllers or expert engineers/programmers. The proposed index successfully predicts the daily PV energy with errors of less than 3% for more than 93% of studied days, according to the 2020 measured solar radiation of the studied case.