Spanish renewable energy firm Green Power Monitor (GPM) is providing integrated technology for India’s first-of-its-kind hybrid solar and storage powered town.

Modhera is now a completely solar-powered town, with a 6MWp photovoltaic system and batteries supplying round-the-clock electric power. A GPM power plant controller (PPC) and energy management system (EMS) were chosen by Mahindra Susten, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for this project, to implement complex functions and a high-level customised control.

GPM, a DNV company, is a data-driven digital provider for renewable energy plants, It provided the integrated onsite control, monitoring, data management and display for the solar PV system and 15MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) hybrid project deployed at the town of Modhera, Mehsana District, in the state of Gujarat.

This hybrid project is the first of its kind in the country: the village of Modhera and its 1400 households will be supplied round the clock with solar energy, materialising the vision of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to make Modhera – home of the Sun Temple, a protected archaeological Hindu complex dedicated to the solar deity Surya – self-reliant thanks to sustainable solar power.

“This was a very prestigious project for Mahindra Susten, and we acknowledge major contribution by GPM in successfully delivering it,” said Pramod Kalyanshetty, head of procurement at Mahindra Susten.

The PPC and EMS have showcased flexibility in hardware design and software configuration. They are the master controllers enabling the project’s different automatic and manual controls. This architecture has pushed the boundaries of complex controls in a renewable energy site, allowing black start, islanding, anti-islanding, energy shifting, state-of-charge management and balancing, and frequency and voltage support.

Additionally, there are 271 1kW rooftop solar systems on residential buildings in Modera, 1610 smart meters and an electric vehicle charging station.

India recently conducted massive electrification projects, with national schemes deployed between 2015 and 2019, aimed at providing round-the-clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers, and at achieving universal household electrification focusing on disenfranchised areas. In 2019, the schemes’ success was announced, with all villages connected to the national power grid.

Unlike the energy sources that are the most used in developing countries, which use some form of combustion, photovoltaic technology allows for the local creation of energy without depleting the resources it exploits or generating continued harmful secondary pollution.

“Solar PV is a great way for India and other countries to move beyond fossil fuels and meet their emission trajectory goals,” said Juan Carlos Arévalo, GPM CEO. “Once the technology truly scales up, there is no limit to the amount of clean energy that can be distributed through solar power, and we are starting to see its life-changing potential with projects like the Modhera Sun village electrification. Distributed solar energy is an instrument of energy justice: setting up the infrastructure to exploit this local, renewable – and, in India, almost continuously available – resource increases the economic agency of underserved communities and opens up the potential for the equitable distribution of the benefits of clean energy: connection, job creation, reduced household burden, improved health and quality of life, and all-in-all, better community resilience.”

Sergi Bosque Garcia, regional manager at GPM, added” “Combining solar PV and batteries in a hybrid project is challenging, but opens a wide range of possibilities to provide 100% renewable and clean energy to local communities. At GPM we are proud of this community livelihood improvement flagship project, that can be replicated in other regions with similar needs; we hope that this becomes a standard and a benchmark in the renewable energy industry.”

For India to attain the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal of providing universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, last kilometre connectivity and quality of access to a round-the-clock power source remain challenges and, as electrification continues to progress, many more solar PV and solar hybrid projects could ensue.