Can Communities Monitor Their Renewable Energy Systems From Home?

United Kingdom., September 19, 2012

Many remote communities have had issues with renewables and no data was available to identify the cause. This has now been resolved for 28 UK communities.

Scottish Communities to monitor their wind turbine and solar photovoltaic remotely

The Pure Energy^® Centre, the pure fuel, renewable energy and energy storage company completed the installation of remote monitoring systems at 28 renewable energy generation sites in the Western Isles Scottish Communities. The monitoring systems have been installed to enable some of the most remote communities in the country to have live access to their renewable energy data from home.

The Pure Energy^® Centre finalised the remote monitoring system installations, the length and breadth of the Western Isles during an intensive three week period. Some of the systems use the latest telecommunication technologies that transmit data via GPRS mobile phones and others via the internet.

This cutting edge project, which has been driven by Community Energy Scotland, CnES and Lews Castle College, will see many communities of the Western Isles accessing data from their renewable generation systems from home through the Logic Energy online portal.

Elizabeth Johnson, Business Development Manager of the Pure Energy^® Centresaid: “Remote control and monitoring of renewables has become a must for any wind, solar, hydro or other renewable project. We are very pleased to have successfully finalised the installation of 28 monitoring system in some of the more remote areas in the country. This is especially pleasing that the monitoring systems have been installed for and on behalf of many community groups. The Pure Energy^® Centre was set up using expertise developed within a community project and it is good to be able to give something back to communities.”

Kathleen MacDonald, Community Energy Scotland’s Western Isles development officer said: “Remote monitoring of renewable systems plays an important role in defining the overall impact that a renewable system has on a community project. We are pleased that this project is a success and are looking forward to monitoring the 28 renewable sites from our base.”

Jennifer Ramsay, also from Community Energy Scotland added: “The data we will receive from the installed remote monitoring systems will not only allow us to monitor the 28 sites, but could also allow us to devise a predictive maintenance. Currently these community organisations operate preventive maintenance schedules and we feel that predictive maintenance using data gathered from this project could provide many more benefits to the communities.”

Why monitoring renewables for Scottish Communities?

Logging data 24/7 through a remote monitoring system may seem excessive, but renewable users can then analyse this data and identify whether the system is performing well. If it is not performing, a site visit can be planned for maintenance or to identify any issue that needs to be resolved. For instance, in hot countries, many solar systems suffer from dust accumulation. This can be detected using a remote monitoring system, similar to those installed in the Western Isles. When this is detected, then someone can react relatively quickly and resolve the issue before any permanent damage has been done to the system. Therefore it is critical with any renewable system to continually monitor the installed equipment and undertake preventative measures rather than reacting to more serious issues when they become apparent.

About the Pure Energy^® Centre:

The Pure Energy^® Centre, the Pure^® fuel, renewable energy, energy storage company, and the UK leader in renewable hydrogen systems, provides independent technical & consultancy services for the energy, renewable energy, transport, heating, building and hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen sectors as well as remote monitoring solutions for Scottish Communities and at worldwide level.

PURE ENERGY CENTRE
Elizabeth Johnson
Baltasound
UNST,
United Kingdom, ZE2 9DS

Call: +44 1957 711 410
Fax: +44 1957 711 838
Email: info@pureenergycentre.com
Website: www.pureenergycentre.com