During the recently concluded RENERGY 2014 expo at Chennai, I came across a company that makes Data Monitoring Systems for Solar Plants. The name of the company is Innorel Systems and they are based out of Bangalore, India.
According to their webpage, they say that their solution involves attaching a wireless sensor to each solar module that in turn creates a self-healing ISM Band wireless mesh local network. These sensors communicate important parameters of individual solar modules to a centralized gateway, which in turn communicates to the cloud-based data analytics system. They say that each gateway can handle data from up to 500 modules and hence the system is expandable. In addition to monitoring individual module status/performance, they also monitor Inverter & battery performance and present all that data using a central graphical interface for easy interpretation.
But what does one do with all this data? They say that their data analytics system will help predict energy generation, and will be a crucial part in operation and maintenance of the entire plant (including monitoring/notification during malfunction, faults, etc.).
It is possible to view reports/status using web-based or app-based remote monitoring systems like computers or mobiles. Customers can also get SMS/email reports during failures/regular intervals, respectively.
This article has been written to introduce this data monitoring system/concept for solar modules and is not a testimonial for their product/services.
Further Information: Innorel Systems.
