Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras

A Remote Monitoring System for a Stand-alone Power Generation System and Method Thereof

Technology Category/Market

Solar PV Technology: Smart Power Monitoring system.

Electronics & Communication: Sensors, Long Range (LoRa) transceiver, LoRa WAN.

Industry: Solar and Communication Industry.

Applications: Solar home systems, solar microgrid systems, other off grid systems (AC/DC mode).

Market: The global smart solar power market size was valued at USD 13.4 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach USD 47.7 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 13.6% during forecast period of 2022 to 2031.

Targeted Industries

Watermarking IP design,

Electronic circuits

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Problem Statement

  • There is a huge demand for implementation of solar PV unit or solar power plant in the rural areas. As the PV modules and their auxiliary components have reliability challenges, faults can and do occur. On the other hand, the repair and maintenance services in remote areas are expensive and time consuming.
  • Thus, there is a need for remote monitoring system to forecast and monitor energy production and consumption from distributed PV unit remotely.
  • The system consists of transmitter (remote location) and receiver (central station), wherein in case of any failure in communication in these standalone units, it reflects the overall performance of the system.
  • Further, the system includes Low Power WAN technology that extends range of cellular communication with additional infrastructure & other deficiencies.
  • The drawback of currently available monitoring systems is that they do not provide a means of calculating the expected performance of a PV system, and the present invention provides the solution by addressing above issues.

Technology

Instant invention describes an IoT solution by claiming a remote monitoring system for a stand-alone power generation system (AC/DC) and a method thereof.

  • The LoRaWAN based remote monitoring system comprises at least one solar PV stand alone system remotely located, a LoRaWAN end node operably coupled to said stand-alone system, includes a microcontroller unit, LoRa transceiver with antenna, a plurality of sensors, a measurement circuit & a battery for measurement circuit; a charge controller, wherein the LoRa WAN end-node is interfaced with respective positive and negative terminals of charge controller; a LoRa WAN gateway, a network server integrated with the LoRa WAN gateway and an application server integrated with the network server provide access and enabling visualization of different operational parameters, wherein the network server is provided with an inbuilt capacity to integrate application server involving database enabling IoT applications.
  • The present system provides information of solar energy generation, electric energy consumption, battery performance, and other indicators, etc.

Key Features/Value Proposition

USER Perspective:

The present system is user friendly, reliable, real time operable with the help of Lora WAN communication technology.

Technical Perspective:

  1. Lora WAN end-node platform is Adafruit Feather model with on-board LoRa module, wherein antenna used in conjunction with the LoRa transceiver is a directional GSM antenna.
  2. LoRa WAN end node collects data and transmits to the LoRa WAN gateway via Radio Frequency (RF) communication.
  3. Said monitoring system measures various parameters of standalone PV system such as load voltage, load current, battery voltage, solar voltage, solar current, ambient temperature and relative humidity.

Industrial Perspective:

  1. Cost effective system, and operational cost is low.
  2. The present system enables easy control and management of the solar PV system to make informed decisions about the performance of the solar PV system.
  3. Lora WAN makes the remote monitoring of stand-alone power generation system more appropriate because of long range coverage area, low power requirement, small data requirement of sensors for IoT applications, no requirement of service subscription, low cost and security based on end-to-end encryption, mutual authentication and integrity protection and confidentiality.
Questions about this Technology?

Contact for Licensing

Research Lab

 Prof. Raghuram Chetty

Department of Chemical Engineering

Intellectual Property

  • IITM IDF Ref. 2017.

  • IN Patent No. 202041033249

Technology Readiness Level

TRL- 3/4

Proof of Concept Ready & tested and validated in Laboratory stage.  

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