Energy loggers help optimise solar PV system designs
A Kenyan electrical engineering and contracting company, Central Electricals, has used data from Tinytag Energy Loggers to identify its clients’ peak power demands and inform the design of solar PV systems.
Central Electricals International Limited (CEIL) is a 70-year-old electrical engineering and contracting company based in Kenya. Qualified and certified, CEIL has a regional footprint with operations across six countries in East and Central Africa. David Lumatete, General Manager – Solar Division at Central Electricals, uses Tinytag Energy Loggers, available in the UK from Gemini Dataloggers, to monitor the periodic energy consumption of prospective clients.
Tinytag Energy Loggers are used to establish the daily load profiles of Central Electricals’ clients, showing the variation in electrical load versus time. This daily profile is an important part of solar photovoltaic (PV) system designs as it validates whether the proposed system will satisfactorily meet the client’s power needs.
Discussing why he chose the non-invasive Tinytag Energy Logger for monitoring client load profiles, David said: “Tinytag Energy Loggers are small, portable, and fairly easy to install on-site. Also, the recorded data can be simply downloaded and exported to third-party software for analysis.”
The data recorded by the Energy Logger is used to identify the peak power demands of the client and is then exported to Microsoft Excel to determine daily energy consumption. Data is also transferred to PVsyst, a specialist software for architects, engineers, and researchers.
Importing the data to PVsyst allows David to determine the renewable fraction (the fraction of the energy delivered to the load that originated from renewable power sources) for reference during the design of commercial and industrial solar PV systems.
Central Electricals recently purchased additional Tinytag Energy units to expand its power monitoring capabilities and maintain accurate data collection to inform solar power solutions.
The Tinytag
The Tinytag Energy Logger monitors voltage (V), current (AC) and power (kW) and determines power factor and energy usage (kWh) data. Designed to monitor single and three-phase power supplies, the energy logger is commonly used in high-consumption premises such as factories, manufacturing plants, distribution warehouses, retail units, and hospitals to assess energy usage and help identify areas in which to improve energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Easy to use, compact, and hand-held, the Tinytag Energy Logger is safe and simple to use for spot checks and long-term monitoring.
