Abstract
M.Tech. (Electrical Engineering)
Renewable energy-based rural electrification project is considered a veritable tool for the development of rural areas in low and middle-income countries such as South Africa. However, the sustainability of these rural projects remains a challenge, as they are hampered by low performance and frequent damage. Monitoring of these projects is essential, as it helps understand the performance for future development. The study reviewed several ways by which solar-based projects can be sustained, it also reviewed ways by which monitoring can be implemented, thus helping in the development of the project.
The research study investigated the perception of people living in Tafelkop, a rural area of Limpopo Province, relating to the sustainability of rural projects. In total, 42 households were randomly sampled and interviewer-administered questionnaires were administered. Statistical Package for Social Science, (SPSS) was used to quantitatively analyze the completed questionnaire data. The second arm of the study focused on the development and implementation of a remote monitoring system for a Solar Home System (SHS) at the same rural area of Limpopo province (Tafelkop). The Simduino (Arduino and GSM module) was used as the data acquisition system while voltage sensing circuit, Illuminance level circuit, DHT22, and DS18S20 were employed to collect data remotely every minute. The cloud implementation was built on the Heroku cloud server, using Node.js as its server runtime, Firebase as its database for storing successfully received data, and Angular 4 framework as its web application tool for real-time data visualization. Successfully received data were analyzed using the Wolfram Mathematica.
Based on the survey results, it was found that age played a significant role in the perception of participants towards the sustainability of rural projects. Cross-tabulation showed a statistically significant outcome between age group and their perception towards the sustainability of rural projects (P-value 0.001). Furthermore, the Cramer’s V test showed a moderate strength association between age group and their perception towards the sustainability of rural projects (Cramer V test value = 0.528). Data were successfully sent to the cloud server, synced to the database, and displayed as graphs in the web application. The analysis of received data showed causation between illuminance and PV module voltage. Some loss of data was detected but was negligible. We developed a cloud based remote monitoring platform for monitoring in-situ temperature, humidity, and dew point, PV module temperature, and voltages from PV module and battery using an existing Solar Home System.