White Mountain Energy Project (WMEP)

NEW!! Live monitoring page!

This page will serve as a links page for the individual components of the WMEP monitoring and controls system, due to be installed in 2009. This will be replaced in 2010 with a live "labview" interface combining all the monitoring and controls functions.

UCI Engineering student Josh Eichmann (L) and UCI Engineering PhD Patrick Couch examine compact RIO monitoring and control device in Energy Lab at Barcroft. This device runs labview software and wll bring the different elements of the system into a single monitoring and control program. Connected to the internet, it will also allow remote monitoirng and control. (Click on photo to enlarge)

• The sunny portal web site shows summary data on the Sunny Boy photovoltaic system, beginning in October 2008. Go to the "publically available plants" page, and type the zip code 93514 into the filter box. Push "enter". This will get you to a list of the Sunny Boy systems in our area, including the WMRS system. During winter operations, sunny boy "B" inverter is under special control to prevent overcharging the battery bank - see details (Sunny Portal notes). Look under "devices" on the Sunny Portal website to monitor each inverter separately.
• The "sunny web box" monitoring system, shows output and configuration of 39 uni-solar "PV-136" panels on the roof of the Barcroft Pace Lab. These are the panels connected to sunny boy "A" inverter (currently 9 panels) and sunny boy "B" (currently 30 panels). Note that when the batteries are full, sunny boy "B" will shut down, leaving only sunny boy "A" on line. Thus, the kWh being displayed may be only a fraction (23%) of the amount available if we could capture it. When the batteries drop to 90% capacity, sunny boy "B" will be reactivated.
• We plan to install a "sunny sensor box" on the rooftop panels to monitor environmental conditions. This will include a radiation sensor keyed to the solar panels, a panel temperature sensor, and ambient air temperature sensor, and an anemometer (windspeed sensor) located immediately adjacent to the panels. Data from these sensors will be fed directly into the sunny web box monitoring system and will be used to calculated solar efficiencies.

Main electric power consumption meter monitors instantaneous power usage and power quality for the entire station including all outbuildings. The only thing not included are DC powered equipment (e.g. some communications equipment and the 80-watt battery heater) which use about 100 watts total, and the load diversion outlets programmed by the Outback inverters to dump excess electricity when a threshold voltage is exceeded. These DC watts are accounted for by the Outback DC flexnet monitoring system which is not yet available on-line. Look for the "kVA total" reading to see the total AC power consumption for the station at any given time. Meter seems to have failed in early November 2009

Interested in calculating carbon offsets or otherwise understanding the cost/benefits of WMEP? See the WMRS carbon offsets page.