ESMAP Solar Mapping Pakistan

Solar Resource Measurement CampaignSummary

Islamabad

7 March 2017

Qazi Sabir Birk KraasPITCO Pvt Ltd CSP Services GmbH

ESMAP weather stations in Pakistan

• Tier 1 stations

– Islamabad

– Bahawalpur (QASP)

• Tier 2 stations

– Peshawar

– Lahore

– Multan

– Quetta

– Khuzdar

– Hyderabad

– Karachi Covering a wide range of different climates that exist

in Pakistan

Equipment: Tier1 stations

• High quality, research-grade solar sensors

• Sun tracker with pyrheliometer and pyranometers – one sensor for each component of solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, DHI)

• Additional meteorological sensors: Temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction at 10m, barometric pressure

Shading assembly w. shading ball

CMP21 Pyranometer (GHI, DHI) with ventilation unit

CHP1 Pyrheliometer (DNI)

Sun tracker

Equipment: Tier2 stations

• Robust solar sensors for field deployment

• Rotating shadowband irradiometer (RSI) and pyranometer

• Additional meteorological sensors: Temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction at 10m, barometric pressure

Silicon photodiode(s)CMP10 Pyranometer (GHI)

Motor

Rotating shadowband

RSI (GHI, DNI, DHI)

Installation of weather stations

* 3 months without DNI/DHI measurement due to tracker defect

** 3 months without DNI/DHI measurement due to tracker defect, 2 months no data due to power supply failure

Station Installation date Installed by Amount of data(months)

Islamabad 2014-10-25 CSPS, PITCO 28*

QASP 2014-10-16 CSPS, PITCO 26**

Peshawar 2015-04-10 PITCO 22

Lahore 2014-10-22 CSPS, PITCO 28

Multan 2014-10-20 CSPS, PITCO 28

Quetta 2015-09-17 PITCO 17

Khuzdar 2015-09-22 PITCO 17

Hyderabad 2015-04-21 PITCO 22

Karachi 2015-04-22 PITCO 22

Maintenance

• Ongoing maintenance by the station hosts:

– Sensor cleaning (Tier1: daily; Tier 2: weekly)

– Visual inspection

– Security against theft/vandalism

• Scheduled maintenance visits by PITCO

(green: normal operation; dark green: maintenance visit; orange: maintenance visit planned but not carried out

PITCO‘s Role

• Site assessment visits

• Co-ordination with site hosts

• Supervision of civil works

• Installation of Tier 1 and Tier 2 stations on 9 locations

• Regular Maintenance of all 9 solar measurement stations

• Provision of Data-Sims for regular data transfer from stations

Maintenance Visits

• Regular maintenance carried out for 9 solar measurement stations in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Jamshoro, Peshawar, Multan, Bahawalpur, Quetta, and Khuzdar

• Close coordination with CSP Services and Station Hosts for successful execution of maintenance visits

• Excellent support received from both Site Hosts and CSP Services

Maintenance of Weather Stations

• Ensuring proper functioning and alignment of all sensors.

• Checking all equipment for damage.

• Correcting, any detected problems, and gather information which might help to correct measurement data (also data previously measured), e.g. wind direction, sensor misalignment, irradiation sensor misalignment, soiling of irradiation sensor etc.

• Going through the daily/weekly cleaning procedure with the site hosts

Maintenance Visit Pictures (Tier 1)

Levelling of

Pyranometers

Alignment of

Pyrheliometer

Maintenance Visit Pictures (Tier 1)

Visual Inspection

Maintenance Visit Pictures (Tier 2)

Levelling of

LI-COR Sensor

Pyranometer is

misaligned

Data acquisition and data quality control

• CSP Services collects data via GSM

• Daily data quality check

– Automatic tests (consistency, gaps, physical limits, …)

– Visual check by experienced operators

• Daily excel reports by email to all interested parties

• Data published on www.energydata.info

FREE OF COST !

Measurement data completeness

Measurement data completeness

• Mostly very good data completeness and smooth operation

• Three main events prevented 100% completeness

– Tracker hardware defect in QASP Dec 2014, tracker from Islamabad moved to QASP, and long time for replacing (issues with customs clearance caused a long delay)

– Power supply outage in QASP mid 2016 (defect in the surge protection)

– Recently trouble with power supply at Lahore station

StationAvg. Data completeness

GHI DNI DHI

Islamabad 100 % 88 % 88%

QASP 92 % 80% 80 %

Peshawar 100 % 100 % 100 %

Lahore 97 % 97 % 97 %

Multan 100 % 100 % 100 %

Quetta 100 % 100 % 100 %

Khuzdar 100 % 100 % 100 %

Hyderabad 100 % 100 % 100 %

Karachi 100 % 100 % 100 %

Cleaning schedule adherence

• All station hosts have provided the cleaning of sensors free of cost, and voluntary !

• It is a huge task to carry this out over two years !

Our sincere gratitude to all station hosts

Measurement data uncertainty

Measurement uncertainty: difference between theoretical datasheet accuracy (controlled environment) and field conditions

– Tier1:

• Theoretical*: DNI ±2%GHI ±3%

• Achieved: DNI ~ 2%GHI ~ 3-4%

– Tier 2:

• Theoretical**: DNI ±3%, GHI ±2%

• Achieved: 3-5% (depending on cleaning schedule adherence)

*NREL Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications

** S. Wilbert, Uncertainty of RSI and Si-Pyranometers including the spectral irradiance error

Summary

• 24 months solar irradiation measurement campaign carried out, extended by 6 months

• Data with good quality was measured

• Data is used for adaptation and validation of satellite models

• Data is available for the general public

Thank youvery much

for your attention!