Customer brief
Our customer has a portfolio of 70,000 PV installations across the UK and is claiming the FIT (Feed in Tariff) for them. Currently they have a system for measuring generated power by each of the installations but do not have a solution to measure power exported back to the grid. Due to FIT rules if you do not have a meter measuring exported electricity back to the grid, the exported power is calculated at 50% of the total generation figure.
The customer believes that the exported electricity equates to a higher figure than the assumed 50% of total generation. They are therefore missing out on revenue and are currently not maximising their return on investment.
Eastron were contacted to create an all in one solution to allow for measurement of consumption and export with a further requirement for remote monitoring. From the collected data the customer is planning to explore further improvements such as battery storage so the Eastron solution needed to be scalable, easy to retrofit, non-intrusive and offer remote monitoring.
Our Solution
Eastron Europe are well placed to offer a wide range of metering solutions to meet the needs of every customer. The challenge on this project was to create an all in one solution for generation, consumption and export.
The need to monitor generation means that a meter would need to be fitted close to the array to measure the PV generation rather than further down the system where the grid consumption and export meter would be required.
We created the following solution:
- One meter to measure PV generation
- One meter to measure grid export and consumption
- Sigfox device to allow transmission of data at a low cost
- Both meters pre-wired to Sigfox unit
- All housed in a metal enclosure with pre-wired CT clamps to ensure installation is fast and error free
- Developed a software portal so the client can view and download the data
- Installation APP that allows the installer to see the data being sent before leaving the property
Pre-wired compliant enclousers with metering and Sigfox device
Genration and export kWh reading
The result
Having met the customers requirement a number of solutions were installed as part of a proof on concept phase. Following the data collected the customer was able to confirm that the 50% assumption of the FIT was an underestimation of their export (By around 25%) The customer was, therefore, able to show a significant return on investment for the system, even when purchase costs and installation were factored in.