ABB has reached the cumulative 5-gigawatt (GW) mark in providing Programmable Logic Controllerbased (PLC) solar plant automation solutions in India. This milestone is an outcome of many significant solar power projects that the company won across India for its Utility-Scale SCADA and String Monitoring Solutions. ABB’s SCADA system - an automation control solution, helps in the efficient running of solar plants and enables plant operators to seamlessly monitor and analyze relevant solar project data in one place. It addresses the needs of the renewable energy industry and supports ABB's efforts to develop technologies that help in securing a sustainable future.
“This milestone reinforces ABB’s next level strategy of driving the renewable energy revolution with market-focused technologies. The recent measures unveiled by the Indian government in its annual budget will boost local manufacturing, encourage new investments, and address the challenge of availability of funds for setting up solar plants in India,” said A R. Madhusudan, President - Drive Products, Motion, ABB India Ltd. “This is a positive move for the industry and will catalyze India’s plans of generating 100 gigawatt (GW) of solar power by 2022. We, at ABB, will continue to play a key role in achieving this target,” he added.
As solar power contributes to the increasingly growing share of the energy mix, the system component technology is continuously evolving to help lower the cost of energy production. Some of the crucial requirements from solar plant operators are constant supervision of the production, maximization of the solar energy yield, real time information about the system status, and grid code compliance.
Delivered as a part of ABB’s Drive Products offering, the Utility-scale SCADA solutions reduce the cost and risk of investment in operating photovoltaic (PV) power plants. In most utility-scale solar PV projects, string boxes are fitted with monitoring systems that perform different kinds of protection, performance and efficiency monitoring. ABB’s string monitoring solutions reduce downtime and increase productivity, while improving the safety of PV panels, and the entire plant.
With tracking devices, the energy production of a PV plant can increase up to 30% in optimal locations. ABB’s AC500 PLC, part of the automation solution, uses high-precision solar algorithms to ensure all type of trackers precisely align and follow the movement of the sun with exceptional accuracy.
The solar sector remains a key driver of new capacity addition in the Indian renewable energy industry. As of January 31, 2021, the total installed capacity of solar power stood at 38,794 MW, while the total wind power capacity was 38,684 MW, according to data from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. ABB has a strong footprint in the solar segment and has partnered with major EPC firms that are building projects across India, including Sterling Wilson, BELECTRIC, Vikram Solar and Mahindra Susten in the renewable energy space.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.
