Technical Monitoring Guide for Solar Hybrid Mini-Grids in India

The Guide seeks to support the knowledge base of various stakeholders in the broader mini-grid ecosystem, including technical services companies, equipment manufacturers, regulators, and investors. Currently, in the absence of any standard established monitoring framework, new entrants to the sector are forced to commit to a period of experimentation in how to track and manage performance. This leads to cost inefficiencies and mistreatment of equipment. This Guide helps mini-grid developers avoid elementary pitfalls, providing a foundation that can be built upon and adapted as they gain more experience in the capabilities and requirements of the equipment on the market.

 

Mini-grid plant monitoring consists of three complementary activities.

 

Technical Audit:

A technical audit is a deep and thorough testing of each plant component, and how all components are working together as an overall system. Such an activity is carried out by qualified engineers, following the guidelines, and making full use of standardised templates for clearly recording observations for follow-up and analysis.

 

The output of a technical audit will be a comprehensive appraisal of current and projected performance, along with practical interventions to combat identified issues and safeguard the plant’s future potential. A technical audit is also an opportunity for plant operators to establish and standardise the long-term monitoring practices: this means formally identifying which parameters to track, how to collect the relevant data, and how to interpret the results. Training in this is particularly critical for the field team who have to respond to developments on the ground and implement routine monitoring and maintenance. By observing and being involved in the audit process, they will gain awareness of the warning signs of equipment health deterioration, and gain expertise in measurement techniques and appropriate record-keeping.

 

Routine Monitoring:

The most important resource for ensuring the smooth running of a mini-grid is the team of technicians working on the ground: their expertise and understanding of the behaviour of plant equipment and customer demand, as well as their capacity to intervene in case of faults, is invaluable. So, while periodic technical audits are important for tracking plant health, the priority for mini-grid developers should be to train, equip, and support local operators in day-to-day monitoring and maintenance activities.

 

Remote Technical Assessment The tracking of specific technical indicators to reveal longer-term trends in the performance of mini-grids is critical. With remote data collection from in plant plant sensors and automated analysis on cloud servers, these key indicators give continuous comparative insight into whether a plant is meeting expected performance.

 

The mini-grid sector as a whole has now developed to the point where routine technical audits and monitoring are indispensable for both aging and newly-built plants. The root causes of underperformance can in some cases be revealed through a single approach alone, but typically insights from all three must be combined to arrive at a complete picture. Once underlying issues have been identified, short- and long-term solutions can be devised; weighing the benefits and costs of these, plant management can optimally allocate their resources in correcting the performance of existing plants and revising the design of new builds

 

Mini-grid technologies continue to mature, and the range and quality of sector specific services continue to improve, making valuable contributions for the development of the sector.

 

-  Smart Power India