Suggested citation: Rahman, Anas and Abhishek Jain. 2021. Making Remote Monitoring of Solar Pumps Work for States. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
Over the past few years, many states have mandated Internet of Things (IoT) functionality, commonly called Remote Monitoring Systems (RMS), for solar pumps supported by subsidy schemes to monitor pump performance in real-time. This study looks at the RMS deployed in Chhattisgarh, the leading state in solar pump deployment. The study examines the general state of RMS currently in use and its utilisation by the states.
Source: Authors’ compilation
The number of pumps logging data is consistently decreasing over the years
Source: Authors’ analysis
The Internet of Things (IoT) is fast becoming ubiquitous in our lives. Among other benefits, IoT enables remote monitoring and controlling of connected devices. In solar pumps, IoT integration is commonly referred to as a Remote Monitoring System (RMS) and has been mandated by the government for several years. It enables pump users to remotely monitor and control their operation; and the state governments, to keep a close watch on the use of these subsidised assets.
The real-time data generated from solar pumps across the country can give critical insights on asset use, water withdrawals, and irrigation patterns among the rapidly increasing solar pump beneficiaries. It makes RMS highly valuable in guiding data-based decision-making for the expansion of public support to solar pumps. However, to realise this potential of RMS, it is critical to have standardised, comparable, and publicly available data from such RMS across government-supported solar pumps. Since 2015, many states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have mandated RMS for solar pumps supported by the state. In this brief, we use a sample of RMS data from Chhattisgarh,1 a leader in the deployment of solar pumps in India, to examine the prevailing state of solar pump RMSs.
The following are the main insights from our analysis of the RMS portals:
Table 1 The parameters and frequency of RMS data vary between different portals.Source: Authors’ compilation
To take a deeper dive into the quality of the RMS data, we selected one among the seven portals; the one with the largest number of registered solar pumps (designated as Portal 1). The following analysis is primarily based on this one portal, but a cursory assessment of other portals confirmed that most of the issues are common across portals.
1. Improper entries: We find that many critical parameters are entered incorrectly, and pump identifiers are missing. For instance, we found that for about 80 per cent of the pumps, the geotag was missing or pointing to the controller manufacturer’s headquarters. Similarly, other critical metadata like the pump owner’s address and the pump and PV array capacity were incorrectly entered for most of the pumps. We notice a similar issue in some of the other portals as well.
2. Poor maintenance and upkeep: We find that a majority of the RMS systems lack proper maintenance, which is reflected in two ways:
3. Data loss: We find that the data logging of pumps is not consistent even between their installation dates controllers against the annual contracts by CREDA, the RMS devices used in 2017-18 were likely to be of better quality than those used in the 2016-17 pumps. This points towards the need for mandating good quality RMS devices and prescribing the limits of data loss for individual devices.
Figure 1 None of the portals is designed to facilitate state-level monitoring of solar pumps
Source: Authors’ compilation
Figure 2 The number of pumps logging data is consistently decreasing over the years
Source: Authors’ analysis
Figure 3 A significant proportion of pumps in the portal stopped transmitting data after the second year of installation itself, indicating non-compliance with the RMS mandate as per the contracts
Source: Authors’ analysis
Note: The number on the y-axis represents individual pumps in their chronological order of installation. Each dot in the image represents a day when the pump’s RMS transmitted data to the server. Blank areas represents days without any data from the particular pump.
Figure 4 Pumps installed in 2016-17 face a higher rate of data loss than those installed in 2017-18
Source: Authors’ analysis
Note: A missing data event is the gap between when a pump stops transmitting data and eventually restarts, signifying some technical issues in between. The duration of this event can vary from a day to months.
While many states progressively adopted RMS in their schemes, there were critical gaps in their regulation and implementation. For instance, the only relevant clauses dealing with RMS in the Chhattisgarh solar pumps scheme are the following:
“Controller must have Remote Monitoring Arrangement as per MNRE & CREDA guidelines. System Integrators shall have to provide a link for monitoring of installed SPV Pumps and on-site data storage sufficient to log & store 1-year data…Login ID & Password of RMS must be submitted to CREDA as and when required.”
Instead of giving vendors a free hand to decide the RMS structure, the states should develop a standardised data structure and data capture frequency for uniformity across multiple vendors. Also, as discussed earlier, a unified portal is the only way to make sense of the state-wide installations and compare the performance of pumps across vendors. If leveraged well, RMS data can generate significant actionable insights. But not all state agencies have enough capacity or expertise to implement such IT systems.
The states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had attempted to create a unified data portal for the solar pumps, but according to the representatives from the respective state agencies, both the states did not operationalise it. Gujarat developed a unified portal for its Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) scheme. The same platform has been further developed into the Solar Energy Data Management (SEDM) portal, following the advent of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthhan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme.
The SEDM system, being developed by the central government, envisions a single platform for gathering data from multiple types of solar power systems, including standalone pumps, grid-connected pumps, distributed power plants, and rooftop plants. It aspires to be a one-stop shop for multiple stakeholders, including farmers, vendors and government agencies. It performs multiple functions like monitoring and management of pumps and complaint registration and redressal. The portal is designed, based on the prescribed standards of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for RMS systems. It has a multi-tiered structure with a state-level portal as the main portal with the raw data and dashboard displaying different performance metrics and the national portal providing a high-level view of solar pump schemes. Currently, MNRE is developing the portal for states, based on their demands and interests.
The SEDM platform can resolve some of the data standardisation gaps. All states implementing solar pump promotion schemes should adopt the SEDM platform at the earliest. States will have to review their ongoing solar pump promotion scheme, to integrate these pumps into SEDM. States should also make an effort to enable the transition of already installed pumps to the SEDM platform.
However, data standardisation is only the first step. The states must also make sure that the vendors comply with the RMS requirements under their contracts, and ensure that the data is regularly logged for each installation. This can be achieved by introducing penalty clauses for non-compliance and incentivising the vendors through a grading system. Furthermore, states should ensure that vendors enter the static data, including geotags, addresses, and other farmer-related information. States should insist on creating in-built data quality checks within the state-level portal of SEDM.
Finally, the data is only as good as how it is utilised. Based on the challenges we faced and the insights we gained during this study, we make the following recommendations to the states:
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