CEA Proposes Rules for Real-Time Weather Monitoring at RE Sites

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has issued draft guidelines for setting up Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at renewable energy (RE) project sites to improve generation forecasting and grid reliability. The draft proposes the measurement of key meteorological parameters in real time to support weather predictability, optimize RE generation, and ensure regulatory compliance.

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Additionally, CEA mandates AWS installation at renewable energy sites, with solar and wind projects required to follow specific criteria. For solar plants, the draft instructs construction on terrain that closely resembles the actual site, with irradiance sensors aligned in the same tilt and orientation as the photovoltaic modules. For wind projects, the AWS must be positioned to reflect the true wind regime of the area, including turbulence zones and artificial barriers.

The draft regulation stated, "One AWS is required per RE project with a capacity of 50 MW or more, or as specified by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC). The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will govern capacity regulations for both intra-state and inter-state transmission systems (ISTS)-connected RE plants." The guidelines require that the system be set up in a manner that allows it to transmit data every 15 minutes. During extreme weather or heavy rainfall, the interval may be manually adjusted to one minute. Remote access will be permitted as per established procedures.

Parameters

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The draft also includes data sampling provisions, allowing users to select individual parameter intervals. AWS equipment must support unattended operation under all weather conditions and operate on a maintenance-free (MF) battery, rechargeable via a solar panel. The battery should support a minimum of 20 days of full-load operation without solar charging.

Data quality control (QC) must be conducted in real time via the AWS datalogger. The station should include a solar charge controller with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), short circuit and overload protection, lightning protection, and under-voltage protection. The regulation also requires sealed maintenance-free (SMF) batteries and suitable solar panels for continuous operation. Moreover, the regulation creates a mechanism to allow data from the AWS site to be transmitted through the cellular network modem following the IMD Mobile Telemetry protocol and its data format to NCMRWF.