We present a publicly available dataset containing photovoltaic (PV) system power measurements and metadata from 1287 residential installations across three states/territories in Australia—though mainly for the cities of Canberra, Perth, and Adelaide. The data are recorded between September 2016 and March 2017 at 10-min temporal resolution, and consist of real inverter reported power measurements from PV systems that are well distributed throughout each city. The dataset represents a considerably valuable resource, as public access to spatio-temporal PV power data is almost nonexistent; this dataset has already been used in numerous articles by the authors. The PV power data are free to download and are available in their raw, quality controlled (QC), and “tuned” formats. Each PV system is accompanied by individual metadata including geolocation, user reported metadata, and simulated parameterization. Data provenance, download, usage rights, and example usage are detailed within. Researchers are encouraged to leverage this rich spatio-temporal dataset of distributed PV power data in their research.

1.
Bright
,
J. M.
,
Babacan
,
O.
,
Kleissl
,
J.
,
Taylor
,
P. G.
, and
Crook
,
R.
, “
A synthetic, spatially decorrelating solar irradiance generator and application to a LV grid model with high PV penetration
,”
Sol. Energy
147
,
83
98
(
2017
).
2.
Bright
,
J. M.
,
Killinger
,
S.
,
Lingfors
,
D.
, and
Engerer
,
N. A.
, “
Improved satellite-derived PV power nowcasting using real-time power data from reference PV systems
,”
J. Sol. Energy
168
,
118
139
(
2018
).
3.
Coimbra
,
C. F. M.
, “
Looking ahead with the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy: Volume 11 and beyond
,”
J. Renewable Sustainable Energy
11
,
010401
(
2019
).
4.
Engerer
,
N. A.
, “
City-wide simulations of distributed photovoltaic array power output
,” Doctor of Philosophy (
The Australian National University
,
2015
).
5.
Engerer
,
N. A.
and
Mills
,
F. P.
, “
KPV: A clear-sky index for photovoltaics
,”
Sol. Energy
105
,
679
693
(
2014
).
6.
Engerer
,
N. A.
,
Bright
,
J. M.
, and
Killinger
,
S.
, “
Himawari 8 enabled real-time distributed PV simulations for distribution networks
,” in
PVSC44
(
Washington D.C.
,
2017
).
7.
Gueymard
,
C. A.
, “
REST2: High-performance solar radiation model for cloudless-sky irradiance, illuminance, and photosynthetically active radiation: Validation with a benchmark dataset
,”
Sol. Energy
82
,
272
285
(
2008
).
8.
Jones
,
R.
,
Bright
,
J.
, and
Engerer
,
N. A.
, “
Solar forecasting for low voltage network operators
,” Technical Report (Oakley Greenwood on behalf of ARENA,
2018
).
9.
Killinger
,
S.
, “
Evaluating different upscaling approaches to derive the actual power of distributed PV systems
,” in
44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC44)
,
Washington D.C., USA
,
2017
.
10.
Killinger
,
S.
,
Braam
,
F.
,
Muller
,
B.
,
Wille-Haussmann
,
B.
, and
McKenna
,
R.
, “
Projection of power generation between differently-oriented PV systems
,”
Sol. Energy
136
,
153
165
(
2016a
).
11.
Killinger
,
S.
,
Muller
,
B.
,
Saint-Drenan
,
Y. M.
, and
McKenna
,
R.
, “
Towards an improved nowcasting method by evaluating power profiles of PV systems to detect apparently atypical behavior
,” in
Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists
(
2016b
), pp.
980
985
.
12.
Killinger
,
S.
,
Bright
,
J. M.
,
Lingfors
,
D.
, and
Engerer
,
N. A.
, “
A tuning routine to correct systematic influences in reference PV systems' power outputs
,”
Sol. Energy
157
,
1082
1094
(
2017a
).
13.
Killinger
,
S.
,
Engerer
,
N.
, and
Müller
,
B.
, “
QCPV: A quality control algorithm for distributed photovoltaic array power output
,”
Sol. Energy
143
,
120
131
(
2017b
).
14.
Killinger
,
S.
,
Lingfors
,
D.
,
Saint-drenan
,
Y.-M.
,
Moraitis
,
P.
,
Sark
,
W. V.
,
Taylor
,
J.
,
Engerer
,
N. A.
, and
Bright
,
J. M.
, “
On the search for representative characteristics of PV systems: Data collection and analysis of PV system azimuth, tilt, capacity, yield and shading
,”
Sol. Energy
173
,
1087
1106
(
2018
).
15.
Lave
,
M.
,
Reno
,
M. J.
, and
Broderick
,
R. J.
, “
Characterizing local high-frequency solar variability and its impact to distribution studies
,”
Sol. Energy
118
,
327
337
(
2015
).
16.
Lingfors
,
D.
and
Widén
,
J.
, “
Development and validation of a wide-area model of hourly aggregate solar power generation
,”
Energy
102
,
559
566
(
2016
).
17.
Lingfors
,
D.
,
Bright
,
J. M.
,
Engerer
,
N. A.
,
Ahlberg
,
J.
,
Killinger
,
S.
,
Widén
,
J.
,
Alhberg
,
J.
,
Killinger
,
S.
, and
Widén
,
J.
, “
Comparing the capability of low- and high-resolution LiDAR data with application to solar resource assessment, roof type classification and shading analysis
,”
Appl. Energy
205
,
1216
1230
(
2017
).
18.
Lingfors
,
D.
,
Killinger
,
S.
,
Engerer
,
N. A.
,
Widén
,
J.
, and
Bright
,
J. M.
, “Identification of PV system shading using a LiDAR-based solar resource assessment model: An evaluation and cross-validation,”
Sol. Energy
159,
157
172
(
2018
).
19.
Lingfors
,
D.
,
Shepero
,
M.
,
Good
,
C.
,
Bright
,
J.
,
Widén
,
J.
,
Boström
,
T.
, and
Munkhammar
,
J.
, “
Modelling city scale spatio-temporal solar energy generation and electric vehicle charging load
,” in
8th International Workshop on Integration of Solar into Power Systems
,
Stockholm, Sweden
,
2018
, pp.
1
8
.
20.
Munkhammar
,
J.
and
Widén
,
J.
, “
An N-state Markov-chain mixture distribution model of the clear-sky index
,”
Sol. Energy
173
,
487
495
(
2018
).
21.
Munkhammar
,
J.
,
Widén
,
J.
, and
Hinkelman
,
L. M.
, “
A copula method for simulating correlated instantaneous solar irradiance in spatial networks
,”
Sol. Energy
143
,
10
21
(
2017
).
22.
NCI
,
National Computational Infrastructure: Data Access
(
NCI
,
2019a
).
23.
NCI
,
NCI Data Portal: NCI Catalogue
(
NCI
,
2019b
).
24.
Reindl
,
D. T.
,
Beckman
,
W. A.
, and
Duffie
,
J. A.
, “
Evaluation of hourly tilted surface radiation models
,”
Sol. Energy
45
,
9
17
(
1990
).
25.
Saint-Drenan
,
Y.-M.
,
Wald
,
L.
,
Ranchin
,
T.
,
Dubus
,
L.
, and
Troccoli
,
A.
, “
An approach for the estimation of the aggregated photovoltaic power generated in several European countries from meteorological data
,”
Adv. Sci. Res.
15
,
51
62
(
2018
).
26.
Shepero
,
M.
,
Munkhammar
,
J.
,
Widén
,
J.
,
Bishop
,
J. D.
, and
Boström
,
T.
, “
Modeling of photovoltaic power generation and electric vehicles charging on city-scale: A review
,”
Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev.
89
,
61
71
(
2018
).
27.
Yang
,
D.
, “
SolarData: An R package for easy access of publicly available solar datasets
,”
Sol. Energy
171
,
A3
A12
(
2018
).

Supplementary Material

You do not currently have access to this content.