Developing an open access monitoring device for off grid renewables
Richard Blanchard
Matt Little
2134/20154
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/conference_contribution/Developing_an_open_access_monitoring_device_for_off_grid_renewables/9579119
Electricity access is a key driver for developing a
modern society. The use of locally generated renewable energy
can overcome limitations of expensive grid infrastructure.
However, there are still barriers to access particularly for the
rural poor in the global south. When individuals or communities
invest in electricity provision it is important to know how well the
system is performing. Commercial monitoring systems have been
developed for large scale renewable energy systems. The cost of
these can outweigh the cost of a small decentralised renewable
energy system. This paper describes the development of a low
cost data logger that is going to be used to monitor the system
performance of small photovoltaic nano-grids in Kenya and
Bangladesh. The device performs within the expected range for
the current, voltage, temperature and irradiance sensors. Data
from the data logger device is sent via GPRS to a website where
it can be accessed as real time graphical displays and data files.
2016-01-27 14:32:43
Remote monitoring
Photovoltaics
Nano-grid
GPRS
Current
Load
Bangladesh
Kenya