This study presents a new remote islanding detection method and control system for photovoltaic (PV) based Distributed Generation (DG) systems. The proposed method monitors and controls the grid, local load and the output of the PV inverter in real time with the communication of circuit breakers. The proposed remote control system detects the changes in the currents of the circuit breakers, frequency, and the voltages by checking the defined threshold values at all electrical branches of the PV system. The proposed islanding detection algorithm was implemented by a low-cost FPGA board. The control system was also designed by considering a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) structure. The proposed method was verified by a developed prototype PV system constituted in the laboratory. The proposed control system was checked in a resonance condition with an active power match, and the verified results indicated that the developed system was also independent of the load and the inverter. Islanding detection time is approximately 1.65 ms even in a worst-case operational scenario, and this is a significantly shorter response time according to the existing standards. The proposed method presents a realistic solution to islanding, is easy to implement, and is suitable for real system applications. The method also provides a reliable islanding detection and presents a low-cost solution to the subject. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.