The PowerPath project aims to maximise off-grid energy output for rural communities through the delivery of a microgrid interconnecting module featuring remote monitoring and metering for grid stabilisation, along with an innovative solar panel coating that will allow 20-25% increased performance.
The first innovation pillar is a smart Direct Current (DC)-DC power converter.
The second innovation pillar is the State of Charge (SoC) estimation method.
The third innovation pillar is the Internet of Things (IoT) solution for optimised real-time remote monitoring of the village-wide balancing DC microgrid in Madagascar, where the solution is deployed. Communication capabilities will have to be added to either the nanogrid controllers developed as part of the IMPHORAA project or the nanogrid interconnection modules developed as part of the current PowerPath project.
This technology will include a data acquisition board to collect sensor data from the nanogrid controller and the nanogrid interconnection modules through wired interconnection solutions and transmit the data wirelessly to data collection points. Low energy wireless technology for the data transmission will be used to cope with locally unavailable or unreliable telecommunication networks in the area in which these solutions will be deployed.
Data collection nodes will use cellular technology to transmit sensor data to the PowerPath cloud platform for storage and processing into business intelligence.