Bihar Set To Have Remote Monitoring System For Solar Assets

BREDA recently issued a tender to install solar streetlights with RMS facility. Photo by-Manish Kumar

The Bihar government has now planned to equip rural solar assets like solar street lights with remote monitoring systems. With the installation of these smart systems with the solar streetlights, these communication devices can alert the authorities concerned to any faults in these assets, leading to faster and timely repairs.

This comes at a time when several rural solar street lights in the state grapple with the issue of lower outputs due to soiling, failures and thefts in several cases. In its latest move the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA) has issued a tender in this regard to empanel the EPC players to install ‘smart solar street lights’ in the state with these Remote Monitoring System (RMS). 

As per the mandate of BREDA, each of these smart solar lights will now comprise a 120 Kwp solar module, a battery and the Remote Monitoring System (RMS). These RMS will be equipped with SIM card that can directly transmit the performance indicators to a local and centraslied monitoring system, operated remotely. 

“The Smart Solar Street Lighting System shall automatically connect directly to the public mobile network via 2G/3G/4G/5G or any latest technology networks for sending data to cloud server or CMS(Central monitoring System) via RMS hardware. The remote monitoring system shall collect and centrally send real-time performance data (including equipment failures) for each Smart SSLS (Solar Street Lighting System). RMS hardware shall be installed in every luminary and shall be capable to generate report for functionality, issues, healthiness, problem status etc. to the RMS Cloud Server with the help of GSM module attached & Network Coverage which shall be updatable OVER THE AIR (OTA) during the contract period,” the tender document read. 

The interested parties have already expressed their interest in this tender and are awaiting for the results. BREDA has mandated that these RMS should be tamper proof.

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“The executing agency shall ensure that the supplied RMS Device should be hackproof and leak proof to avoid the malicious activity or event. The communication nodes shall connect to the charge controller through suitable communication interface and automatically sense and monitor various parameters of the Solar Street Light,” the tender document read. 

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Tales from other states 

Several other states have also tried different approaches to remotely handle the issue of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) of their solar assets. For example-Odisha has hired a separate agency which takes care of all the complaints of rural solar assets like solar streetlights, maintains the records, monitors its timely repair in close coordination with the Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA). S

imilar experiments have also been done in Jharkhand, however the challenges of telecom connectivity in tribal and remote areas often hamper the prospects of remote monitoring of several of these rural assets. Many of these solar streetlights often remain non-functional in rural areas or ill maintained due to the lack of monitoring of their daily generations and even the condition of their working.