[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Yes, the panels are all 440 watts, 23 in number. There was no subsidy involved, this was purely out of pocket.

Haryana state gives solar subsidy only on basic polycrystalline panels, and only through a very limited number of installers. Tata Solar is not on the list.

Good to know. Its a shame that most of these manufacturers don't even advertise their solar products properly and have almost zero information on their website. Sounds like for some manufacturers this industry is stuck in the year 2000 and don't know about the Internet and e-commerce era.

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by akash.1318

Yup, We're going renewable too.!! The Grid-Tie way

Having trouble choosing a good Grid-Tie Inverter, A "Smart" one which I can monitor through TCP/IP is a must for me. Currently leaning towards GoodWe/Growatt/PowerOne(You can only chose from the companies that are empanelled with/from BESCOM)

Sanctioned Load - 3KW
Contract Term - 25 Years with BESCOM

More details to follow soon.

Akash, can you let me know how to opt for this system from BESCOM?, my residence comes under Hebbal Sub Division, any references would be of help.

[skumare]

Originally Posted by vj_v3

General assumption is 4 units of generation per day per 1KW. So a 5 KW system will generate 4x5 = 20 units per day or 600 units per month. Will be lower in rainy and higher when it is bright and sunny but should average out since excess units sent to the grid are carried forward and settled every 6 months and you will essentially consume them in summer months with air conditioning etc.

Is the discom settling the amounts (cash credit to your account) every six months? Do they have fixed cycle (ex: Sep/30 and Mar/31) for this settlement or does this vary from installation to installation?

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by skumare

Is the discom settling the amounts (cash credit to your account) every six months? Do they have fixed cycle (ex: Sep/30 and Mar/31) for this settlement or does this vary from installation to installation?

My PV system is still not installed, should be installed anytime in the next couple of weeks. The GST change on PV systems (5% to 12%) starting Oct 1st has messed up the supply chain i hear, My product delivery is delayed.

The settlement cycle is fixed. (June/Dec). thinking about it, these months make sense i guess. see link below

https://www.tssouthernpower.com/fram...N/Pdfs/FAQ.pdf

https://tserc.gov.in/file_upload/upl...led%20Cost.pdf

this order claims the pay out price is 4.28/unit but i have no experience on how the pay out work or have not heard from anyone yet. Will post here if i find out or hear feedback from elsewhere.

[vj_v3]

My 6KW Grid Connected PV plant was Installed last week in Hyderabad and has generated over 100 units of power already although weather has been mostly cloudy.



Vendor has done a mostly fuss free end to end installation. The overall project took about 3.5 months from day of payment of advance (20 July) to commissioning.

- Sanctioned load increase on meter to PV plant capacity. - Customer
- Discom feasibility approval. - vendor
- TSREDCO inprincipal approval (these guys inspect and pay the subsidy to the vendor once installed)- vendor
- From Tata once all approvals are in place >> Panels, inverter and Balance of systems (18nos 335WP Tata panels, Goodwe 6KW 3 phase inverter, DC cables, AC cables 4 core 6 Sqmm, AC DC, DC DB, 2 lightening arrestors, associated cables and connectors, earthing pit material, mcbs)
- ElevatedStructure. (Aluminum paint coated GI structure). I wish they did HDGI C pipes but seems difficult for custom installations
- Polycab hard pvc tubes for concealing all naked wiring.
- Installation was done start to end in 3 days.
- 3 separate earthing rods were installed in a separate pit. Existing earthing was not used at all. (1 for AC side, 1 for DC side, 1 for Lightening arrestors).


Once installation was done, the vendor submitted the work completion form to the discom and it took about 3-4 for the discom to process and issue a Netmeter. The ADE was supposed to inspect and install but the vendor technician just got hold of the Netmeter and the line man and got it installed to turn on the plant. The vendor seemed motivated to get all this done asap so that he can submit final forms to TSREDCO and get his subsidy money paid (Apparently, they will also come in to inspect before final approval for subsidy but that is not of any concern to the end user). They also took care of the chai pani for the line man themselves, i didn't have to invest in any kind of chai pani except my voluntary contribution to the guys who moved the panels to the rooftop through my narrow staircase.


My PV plant is definitely going to generate more than i need so i will update here about my experience with getting back any kind of money from the DISCOM. if nothing happens, i plan to anyway invest in Electric vehicles eventually so i get to use my own power hopefully.

The App based monitoring of Goodwe seems to have broken on day 2 and is not showing any data from my inverter. However, i am kind of a pro in this area and have used some integrations from the community to poll the inverter on the LAN and gather the data. the above Stats are from the same source. I am also working on Rs485 communication with both the L&T netmeter from the Discom, and the Inverter so that i can get all of this data into my home automation system locally. I am also working on some esp based energy monitoring for each of the phases separately, just for fun, still need to figure out how to make that one reliable.

Any questions, please feel free to reach out... All said and done, if you have the money, i would probably recommend the subsidy free route and go for latest 440W panels, probably a hybrid inverter (no batteries for now). If you have partial shading problems, probably micro inverters etc... I think I have gathered enough knowledge as of now during the process and can provide high level recommendations if needed.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by vj_v3

Any questions, please feel free to reach out

HI,

Could you help me make the correct decision & help with info.

Unfortunately, there is no way that i can PM ( you are still a newbie) or send a message as it seems to be disabled on your profile.

[Shreyans_Jain]

The smog and pollution here up north significantly affect solar electricity generation. My 10kw unit has rarely gone above 5kw at any time this month. Earlier, it used to hit 9kw just about every day. Daily generation is down to 15-18 units a day, which is less than half of what it was generating during the clear air months. The total generation this month has been 345kwh, compared to 700+ units in October.

A layer of dirt and dust is forever present on the panels nowadays. You wash them in the evening and they are all dirty the next morning. Last month, a weekly wash was good enough. Prospective buyers should be aware of all this. Solar panels working at half capacity for 4 months every year totally screws up the cost and ROI calculations.

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

HI,

Could you help me make the correct decision & help with info.

Unfortunately, there is no way that i can PM ( you are still a newbie) or send a message as it seems to be disabled on your profile.

I am not able to pm as well. share your email id or something in a cryptic way and we can share contacts i guess. may be add your email id in the website section of your profile temp. Not sure if there are any tbhp rules around this.

[vj_v3]

Meanwhile, My 6KW PV plant has generated about 307 Units so far since Nov 10th when the plant was commissioned. Today being the highest generation so far at 27.2 Units. Most of this month has been cloudy and raining in hyderabad. Starting monday this week, it has been mostly sunny in hyd and generating lots of power while i was enjoying cloudy weather on the goa beaches .

I will post some pics shortly with some stats.

The Cloud app (cr'app'!) that came with the inverter has been very unreliable and shows my inverter offline and the installer wasn't able to figure out what happened and just was just try to blame my weak wifi signal etc. I saw that coming and being a home automation and IOT enthusiast myself, took things into my own hands. Was initially planning to build a RS485 <<>> ESP8266 based serial monitor and then figure out the Modbus parameters etc. but luckily our good friends on internet have already figured out integrations that pull directly from the Data logger over LAN. This is working very well and also nullifies the BS of the installer that the wifi signal is weak. Now, i don't want to show him what i am doing coz, they will then again blame that the logger is not working since i have been messing with it

Meanwhile, i have also done some packet captures on my edge router and see that the tcp connections to the cloud servers are failing. Goodwe (Inverter manufacturer) has not been responsive on the support ticket for a week so im ignoring the app for now and haven't also been pestering the installer much, they still need to get the final payment from me, so they better pull the right strings. Might be an issue for regular customers who cant figure out alternatives.

[skumare]

Originally Posted by vj_v3

My 6KW Grid Connected PV plant was Installed last week in Hyderabad.... My PV plant is definitely going to generate more than i need so i will update here about my experience with getting back any kind of money from the DISCOM.

Thanks for the updates and sharing the know-how. My 3KW net metering unit shall be erected on the terrace over this weekend and may go online next week. I am also planning to align my usage (convert to electric cooking plates, a new A/c in Hall etc) rather than expecting the Discom to payback for the surplus units.

I will be in touch regarding a separate 2kw no-subsidy unit (on a east-sloped roof), I think going for mono panels with micro inverters makes sense for this as the generating time is limited. I will connect my Inverter batteries and route all the lights, fans and TV thru this system (which are already separately wired to the inverter). Do you have contacts of any vendors in Hyd who are competent in this area?

[vj_v3]

Sharing stats i mentioned above:

Units generated per day since Nov 10, some initial data is missing while i was setting this up on home assistant.

The 8-12 units generated last week is on fully cloudy/drizzly days.



Highest generation today - 27.2 kWh



Instantaneous generation on a typical day. Generation peaks in the afternoon and goes up and down when there is clouds. I have shading from an apartment diagonally behind my home in this season after 3:30 pm so generation tapers down after that but still continues to generate due to irradiance. I have seen that the instantaneous generation goes way over 6KW when the panels are cool (optimum temperature 24 C) and then the sun shines suddenly, otherwise on hot days, the panels are not super duper efficient but can at least generate consistently unlike shaded days.



Work in Progress - End to end energy dashboard on Home assistant.

Showing only solar generation as of now.



Going a bit overboard with my monitoring but IOT is my hobby so some phase wise Energy consumption i am working on monitoring using CT clamps and esp boards showing instantaneous power consumption through out the day which will also help me see what appliances are consuming how much high level. Once stabilized this data will go into the Home assistant energy dashboards.



I am also trying to figure out pulling data from the DISCOM's netmeter so that i will see what the Netmeter is seeing, the units i am pulling from the grid, the units i am feeding back into the grid - all from my mobile phone. There is not much documentation for the L&T meter they installed, I was assuming the data port it had was a modbus rs485 port only to later realize that it is actually a RS232 port and uses DLMS protocol. L&T is asking me to reach out to the Discom when i ask for a manual with register addresses etc. i will post here if i end up figuring it out eventually and this will also help me put more reliable data into the dashboard.

End of the day, all this data might not matter to a regular joe but i use this hobby to learn new technologies, open source monitoring stacks etc. In other IOT stuff, I also do stuff like monitoring overhead Tank water levels and make announcements via alexa when the tank is empty or full + send out a notification via telegram messenger, monitor my solar heater temperatures, room temperatures etc. just for fun . Off course i can automate water pumps and geysers using this data but don't plan to put too much automation into the home that can break when i am away or am dead and no one else knows what i have done . My CCTV camera paired with a motion sensor sends me a pic on telegram every time someone is at my gate or someone rings my doorbell wherever i am in the world. Off course, there are commercial products that do all of this but i like doing my own stuff. All this probably belong to other threads so i will save it for another day i guess. Apologies for going off topic and bragging.

Originally Posted by skumare

I am planning to get a 2KWp off-grid system at a farmhouse, glowpower is the inverter that is included in the system. A couple of queries:
a) Will this accept 220v AC input from the grid, if available?
b) Can we tweak the inverter to prioritize the source - (1) (Batteries charged) - Solar/Grid/Battery and (2) (Batteries need to be charged) - Grid/Solar/Battery -in this order?
Is there any specific inverter brand that offers this feature?

Didn't notice this post earlier. Not an expert but can share what i know if its not too late already.

a) Don't know about the specific brand but most off grid inverters accept AC input and you can configure whether the battery charges from solar panels, or grid or from both depending on availability to stay at full charge. You can also configure whether the load has to run from batteries when solar is unavailable or if it should run from the grid when grid is available and use batteries only for backup.

b) Most inverters have this feature but you should check for your specific model. I know Luminous is popular, i have seen a company called Nexus solar selling innovative products in this area. I heard UTL gamma inverters are good.

If you are not aware, you can also look at hybrid inverters that can operate completely operate offgrid using a combination of solar+battery when grid is unavailable (unlike grid connected inverters that shutdown when grid is not available) and also feedback into the grid if there is excess generation that is not being used by the load and the batteries are full. Most companies like Growatt, goodwe etc have models listed on their websites for hybrid inverters but i was at the RenewX 2021 exhibition last weekend (not very interesting) and most stalls there were claiming hybrid models are not yet available in India and claim the reason is high cost. When i enquired, they mentioned hybrid models are 30% more expensive and that's why they are not available- sounded like a lame reason. What these companies sell are Transformer less models that use power electronics for all the conversion and isolation magic and are lighter in weight and wall mountable.

There are other companies like Nexus solar in India that have launched transformer based hybrid inverters with all the features you are asking for but are heavy, floor mounted and supposedly less efficient than their transformer less peers due to more losses.

Personally, my thought process right now is that i might look at Hybrid a couple of years later when the technology and availability in India matures. One other big thing is LifePo4 batteries are still scarce and expensive in India and they are the future for solar applications compared to our regular very inefficient Lead acid batteries. Sadly, there is no local manufacturing in india yet for most of these products and almost all imports are from china.

Originally Posted by skumare

Thanks for the updates and sharing the know-how. My 3KW net metering unit shall be erected on the terrace over this weekend and may go online next week. I am also planning to align my usage (convert to electric cooking plates, a new A/c in Hall etc) rather than expecting the Discom to payback for the surplus units.

I will be in touch regarding a separate 2kw no-subsidy unit (on a east-sloped roof), I think going for mono panels with micro inverters makes sense for this as the generating time is limited. I will connect my Inverter batteries and route all the lights, fans and TV thru this system (which are already separately wired to the inverter). Do you have contacts of any vendors in Hyd who are competent in this area?

I'd suggest picking up the list of epc vendors from the tsspdcl website and filter down to some companies that seem like reputed/bigger companies and reaching out to a few of them before you finalize the one that sounds good to you.

Alternatively, you can reach out to brands if you know which brand panels you want. eg. Vikram, Loom, Tata, waree etc and ask for their dealers in hyderabad. Try to get the 440W panels for best space utilization.

I feel procuring and mounting the panels is the biggest challenge. Once that is done, for what you are planning to do, you just need a good Solar charge controller and continue with you existing inverter and batteries. There are charge controller that have an input plug socket for your existing inverter and manage all the intelligence of charging from solar vs charging from the grid + discharing from solar vs grid. Off course, never forget proper earthing, Surge protections and lightening arrestor.

i'd say try calling loom solar once, they have a couple of vendors in hyd but i didn't find the vendors response proper when i was researching but you can try again. I can also share my tata vendor details and you can talk to them about their experience with offgrid systems etc.

[KL54]

Sharing my experience of installing solar from Australia:

I have installed 7.7 kW of PVs distributed on the east, north and west sides of my roof in Tasmania. Panels are 370W each and inverter is a Goodwe 6kW. The whole process from reaching out for a quote to installation was reasonably quick - reached out to vendors for a quote on Oct 26 and got it installed on Nov 18. The vendors here handle approval from the electricity distributor too.

Some pics from up the roof:

8 panels to east


5 panels to north


8 panels to west

Installation was done by an accredited electrician (it's very regulated down here). Coming into the southern hemisphere summer, I'm consistently getting 58 units with clear skies. Coupled with a electricity retailer (yes, you can drop and pick power retailers) who I switched to because of favourable peak and off-peak rates and a decent feed in tariff, I don't foresee paying for electricity any time soon, fingers crossed! Winter of course will be the real stress test.

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by KL54

Sharing my experience of installing solar from Australia:

I have installed 7.7 kW of PVs distributed on the east, north and west sides of my roof in Tasmania. Panels are 370W each and inverter is a Goodwe 6kW. The whole process from reaching out for a quote to installation was reasonably quick - reached out to vendors for a quote on Oct 26 and got it installed on Nov 18. The vendors here handle approval from the electricity distributor too.

Some pics from up the roof:
Attachment 2238655
8 panels to east

Attachment 2238653
5 panels to north

Attachment 2238654
8 panels to west

Installation was done by an accredited electrician (it's very regulated down here). Coming into the southern hemisphere summer, I'm consistently getting 58 units with clear skies. Coupled with a electricity retailer (yes, you can drop and pick power retailers) who I switched to because of favourable peak and off-peak rates and a decent feed in tariff, I don't foresee paying for electricity any time soon, fingers crossed! Winter of course will be the real stress test.

Attachment 2238656

The last graph looks so clean . Fully cloud free days i guess.

[skumare]

Originally Posted by vj_v3

The 8-12 units generated last week is on fully cloudy/drizzly days. Highest generation today - 27.2 kWh

My 3KW net-meter system is on now, but I see a peak generation of only 1500W (50%) so far across 4 (not-so cloudy) days. Growatt is the inverter. I feel this needs to be looked at by the installer or do I need to contact Tata Solar directly? Dust on the panels? They are installed 2..3 weeks ago, this may not be the issue.
On the aside, after seeing the elevated structure, I felt I should have gone for 5 or 6KW rather than 3KW. Information/selling needs to be upgraded ASAP by the manufacturers and vendors as well.

Originally Posted by vj_v3

I feel procuring and mounting the panels is the biggest challenge. Once that is done, for what you are planning to do, you just need a good Solar charge controller and continue with you existing inverter and batteries. There are charge controller that have an input plug socket for your existing inverter and manage all the intelligence of charging from solar vs charging from the grid + discharing from solar vs grid. Off course, never forget proper earthing, Surge protections and lightening arrestor.

There are complete sets available on Amazon or even is parts, but I can't see any installation service attached. I asked the vendor who installed my rooftop system, he is yet to comeback if he will just provide installation service alone. 440W panels are difficult to procure directly.
As you mentioned, I will go with my current Inverter setup, procure the panels + a good charge controller and done with it.

Noticed that the TSSPDCL net-meter credits only around 86..87% of the power generated by the solar system, owing to the RPF (power factor). Our net generation shoud be read from the Net-meter, rather than the solar inverter I guess. Is there any way we can improve the RPF or is it completely beyond our control?

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by skumare

My 3KW net-meter system is on now, but I see a peak generation of only 1500W (50%) so far across 4 (not-so cloudy) days. Growatt is the inverter. I feel this needs to be looked at by the installer or do I need to contact Tata Solar directly? Dust on the panels? They are installed 2..3 weeks ago, this may not be the issue.
On the aside, after seeing the elevated structure, I felt I should have gone for 5 or 6KW rather than 3KW. Information/selling needs to be upgraded ASAP by the manufacturers and vendors as well.
There are complete sets available on Amazon or even is parts, but I can't see any installation service attached. I asked the vendor who installed my rooftop system, he is yet to comeback if he will just provide installation service alone. 440W panels are difficult to procure directly.
As you mentioned, I will go with my current Inverter setup, procure the panels + a good charge controller and done with it.

Noticed that the TSSPDCL net-meter credits only around 86..87% of the power generated by the solar system, owing to the RPF (power factor). Our net generation shoud be read from the Net-meter, rather than the solar inverter I guess. Is there any way we can improve the RPF or is it completely beyond our control?

How many units is your 3KW system generating at this time of the year?

Below is my generation each day in Dec 2021 for my 6KW system. Your should be approx half of this if there is no shade throughout the day. Infact, my roof is shaded partially after 3:40 PM, so your daily generation might be more if you are unshaded.



Looking at my daily graphs, Peak W (at around 12 PM) last month has been around 4KW. The last few days was even lower due to weather i guess. Do no expect 3KW on your 3 KW system, might ideally hover around 2 KW i guess depending on weather and temperature. The panes lose some efficiency with each rising degree of temperature. Infact, i saw 6 KW peak generation for brief period only when it was raining and overcast in Nov. Dec never really crossed 4.5KW peak.

Try washing the panels though, i have realized that just washing with water spray does not really clean all the layers of dust. I have been using a pressure washer and also a extendable microfiber wiper but it has been very challenging due to too much height of my elevated structure.

Total generation for december was 746 units for my 6 KW system. this translates to 24 units per day average which is like 4 Units per KW. some days were higher and some days were lower based on cloud cover and weather conditions as seen in the graph above.

Why does seeing the structure make you feel you should have gone for 5 or 6KW? I am thinking, the size of the system should purely be based on your consumption rather than aesthetics? Not sure if i understand what your are saying correctly.

TSSPDCL meter uses KVAH for computing credits (derived using PF like you mentioned) while they use KWH for billing normally. Obviously sounds beneficial for them but i am not sure if it is 86%? i thought i lost about 8-12 units last month will check this month again. Not that technical, so i don't know if we can improve the PF ourselves but will try to read more when i get a chance.