Technical specifications of a weather monitoring station in solar power plants

Technical Specifications of a Weather Monitoring Station in a Solar Power Plant

Weather monitoring plays a crucial role in the operations and maintenance of a solar power plant. Accurate weather data helps solar plant operators to optimize the performance of the plant, anticipate potential downtime due to extreme weather conditions, and ensure the safety of the plant and its personnel. A weather monitoring station (WMS) typically consists of various sensors that measure meteorological parameters such as solar irradiance, temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. In this article, we will discuss the technical specifications of a weather monitoring station used in a solar power plant.

The weather monitoring station comprises nine complete sets of equipment that include a combination of sensors, mounting stands, and data loggers. The following are the technical specifications of each of the equipment:

1. Spectrally Flat Class A Pyranometers (SMP22 from Kipp&Zonen) measuring global irradiance installed horizontally (GHI) with 10-meter cable and Shielded ventilation: Sensitivity between 5 to 20 uV/W/m2 Maximum operational irradiance: 2000 W/m2 Non-linearity (100 to 1000 W/m2): less than 1%.
2. Shielded ventilated resistance thermometer (e.g., PT100, PT1000 according to IEC 60751) or equivalent to measure ambient temperature.
3. Wind Speed Sensor Anemometer: Anemometer (hemispherical cups or ultrasonic type) and wind direction sensor/wind vane, both unobstructed at 10-meter height and with a sampling period of 1 Hz. Wind vane Sensor with Booms (All the booms for wind sensors will be made of stainless steel AISI 316).
4. Ambient temperature sensor with a measurement accuracy of ± 1 °C, using one (1) calibrated and shielded ventilated thermocouple.
5. Module Temperature Sensor with 300 ft. Cable: Range: -50 º C to +150 º C Accuracy: 0.1 º C.
6. Barometric pressure sensor.
7. Tipping bucket rain gauge: Collector surface: 200cm2 According to guide to meteorological instruments nº8 of the WMO Without additional heating system.
8. Hygrometer/air moisture measurement equipment.
9. Calibrated reference cell with mounting assembly.
10. Relative humidity sensor.
11. Soiling type DustIQ sensors.
12. Mounting Stand for GHI Pyranometers.
13. Mounting Stand for POA Pyranometers.
14. Data Logger (CR1000X/3000X) with modbus TCP/IP & DNP3 output with 2 months storage capacity without overwriting files.
15. 10 Mtr. Met Mast (heat-galvanized steel