Monday, December 23, 2013: Every state in the country is realising the importance of solar power. In order to manage the increasing demand for power, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is reportedly considering trying out intelligent solar-powered inverters. During peak hours, these inverters will automatically discharge power to electric equipment.
Up to 18 companies have reached out to the board’s demand for new generation electric invertors. This will cut down power consumption from grid lines during peak hours, i.e 6pm to 10pm and 5am to 9am.
In order to set a technology standard for the inverters available in the market, KSEB is promoting the idea of solar-powered inverters. These will automatically stop taking power from KSEB lines during peak hours. Additionally, it will only use line power to charge 50 per cent of the inverter battery capacity, during off peak hours.
After discussing it at the KSEB innovation zone at the Kochi start-up village, these devices were successfully installed on a pilot basis and hence the board planned to make it commercial now.
M Sivasankar, KSEB chairman told TOI, “As a first step, we called a meeting of the traders who sell inverters in the state market. We asked them if they would be able to stick to the technical specifications set for inverters by the KSEB. They agreed to the same. Later, a meeting of inverter manufacturers was called and they also agreed to the board’s suggestion for a standardization of inverters. The idea of introducing solar-powered inverters came later.”
He further added that these devices will be made available in the market priced between Rs 25,000 and Rs 40,000. The equipment are being tested from various companies at the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.
