Central Electricals monitors energy consumption to improve the design of solar PV systems, optimising renewable energy solutions across East and Central Africa. David Lumatete, General Manager – Solar Division, shares his experience using Tinytag Energy Loggers to create daily load profiles for their clients.

Central Electricals International Limited (CEIL) is a 70-year-old electrical engineering and contracting company based in Kenya. Qualified and certified, CEIL has a regional footprint with operations across six countries in East and Central Africa. David Lumatete, General Manager - Solar Division at Central Electricals, uses Tinytag Energy Loggers to monitor the periodic energy consumption of prospective clients.

Tinytag Energy Loggers are used to establish the daily load profiles of Central Electricals' clients, showing the variation in electrical load versus time. This daily profile is an important part of solar photovoltaic (PV) system designs as it validates whether the proposed system will satisfactorily meet the client's power needs.

The Tinytag Energy Logger monitors voltage (V), current (AC) and power (kW), and determines power factor and energy usage (kWh) data. Discussing why he chose the non-invasive Tinytag Energy Logger for monitoring client load profiles, David says, "Tinytag Energy Loggers are small, portable, and fairly easy to install on-site. Also, the recorded data can be simply downloaded and exported to third-party software for analysis."

The data recorded by the Energy Logger is used to identify the peak power demands of the client and is then exported to Microsoft Excel to determine daily energy consumption. Data is also transferred to PVsyst, a specialist software for architects, engineers, and researchers.

Importing the data to PVsyst allows David to determine the renewable fraction (the fraction of the energy delivered to the load that originated from renewable power sources) for reference during the design of commercial and industrial solar PV systems.

Central Electricals recently purchased additional Tinytag Energy units to expand their power monitoring capabilities and maintain accurate data collection to inform solar power solutions.

Other Tinytag Energy Logger customer stories:

• Leading energy supplier, Energia, uses the Tinytag Energy Logger to provide commercial customers with information about power consumption and key areas of energy usage.
• Celab, designer and manufacturer of high-reliability power supplies, use the Tinytag Energy Logger to understand the power usage of individual pieces of equipment and identify potential energy savings.
• Bedford Hospital uses the Tinytag Energy Logger for regular, accurate monitoring of power usage and energy efficiency.