Developing 17 MW Solar Park from Zilch, The- Beginning

Developing 17MW Solar Park from Zilch

In this blog We are going to discuss in detail of our journey from the very first day of our 14 MWp solar park project, the hurdles we met when we dived deep into the project and how our smart and well compatible team has resolved the hurdles with the help of our extremely expertise managers and our extraordinarily talented directors, in an easy way, we’ll also discuss about our daily project progress and step by step actions that we’ve taken to successfully commission this project.

Date: (11/10/2021) 

After several site surveys, technical soil testing and a detailed technical discussion our Directors has finalized the Land for our 17 MWp Solar park at Chidambarapuram Village near Kovilpatti to evacuate the Clean and green electrical Power generated by a 17MW DC/ 14 MW AC at Vijayapuri 110/33/11 KVA substation, situated just 2Km away from the project site.

Land Selection: After testing the Soil Quality, checking the substation distance and understanding the accessibility of the land, the lands for erecting and commissioning our solar plant is decided and finalized, being a cotton soil land it was difficult to start any work activities on the land in rainy season as from October to till January it’s rain time in the Southern part of India, mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu. We had to take the power for the lands in our name and wait till the rain stops for further activities.

Meanwhile we planned to get ready with the transmission line in place, so that once rain stops, we can quickly prepare the lands as per our requirements and get the solar plant commissioned within our expected timeline.

Hurdle: In our complete 17 MWp solar park there are 5 number of 1.4 MWp solar plant and one 7.5 MWp solar plant, while selecting the land for 7.5 MWp solar plant, our team has faced a geographical challenge, in spite of its good for construction soil quality and position, there was a public road going through the land from the south east side, which was eventually splitting our 7.5MWp solar plant in two sections.

Public road splitting our solar plant in two section

Resolution: At first our idea was to deviate the land from the outer section of our plant boundary, how ever that seems a very lengthy and time taking process, Finally we’ve decided to leave that splitted portion at the south east section of the public road which was almost 3acers of area, and accure another 3.77 acers of land in the south west section, which fulfilled our land requirement for the 7.5MWp solar plant.

land is extended towards South-West

Topographical Map Of Chidambarapuram Village

Date:(10/11/2021-20/02/2022)

Transmission Line Work:

The complete 2.5 Km transmission line is being erected using 12 meters Long RSJ transmission pole, and 4.72, 100 sq mm Dog conductors, the poles are dug inside the land by 2 meters of depth and above the ground it has been kept 10 meter long.

 

Hurdle: The first challenge was to get the ROW for the transmission line, since the transmission line was going through the villagers land that were not associated with our projects, it was getting difficult to get the ROW clearance from the VAO as the villagers were not ready to let us put the pole through their unused land. After all the pole erection were completed  villagers bent the poles in a few places resulting in the tear of the transmission conductors. Which causes us a huge work flow disturbance and money losses.

Pole bent due to ROW issue

Resolution: Our TL team had a discussion with the local VAO person and decided to turn the Transmission line position. However changes in the Transmission line route started causing shadow effects in our Previously designed and finalized Solar plants. With the first resolution our second hurdle comes out.

Transmission Line Work Underway

Land Access: 

As shown in the previous Topographical map in side the whole Chidambarapuram village, the land bearing survey number 250/4, 250/1,  250/2,  256/2, 240/1, 240/2A, 240/2B1, 240/2B2, 253/1A, 253/1B, 253/3B, 238/1, 238/4, are used for The complete 17 MW DC solar park. Among these lands access for 250/4 land is a sharing road owned by fourth partner energy who are also commissioning a solar park project nearby.

We’re having a 30 years road sharing agreement with 4rth partner to access that particular land, also there is a public road going through the lands as shown in the Topographical map with yellow mark, which can be used for access towards the other plants. However, internal roads for each plant to be made.

Date: (16/12/2021 - 16/02/2022)

GFC Drawing Preparation & Finalization: For any solar project the GFC or good for construction drawings are the base or the foundation of the projects, this the part which will decide the quality efficiency and compatibility of the whole project. Our genius engineering team has implemented more than 10 iterations of GFC drawings to get the best out of it.

Hurdle:

- At the preliminary stage the main challenge our design team has faced is with the different capacity and dimensions of the solar modules. As we’re using three different Wp of modules in our solar park, the string design and structural design was a bit challenging for our design team, as the module dimensions and their output voltages and current ratings changes with the different watt peak capacity. 

- Next major challenge our design team has faced is the shadow effect in one of our plants due to the changes in the Transmission line route. After freezing all the GFC drawings we had to change the Transmission line route due to the ROW issue, Which started resulting in a shadow effect on almost one half of our first plant from morning 8.30 a.m to till 10.30 a.m.

Shadow effect due to rerouting of transmission line

Resolution: We have run 3, 4 different simulation with PV cyst and sketchup to determine the shadow loss calculation and the result was pretty satisfactory, however our brilliant team came out with an idea to reduce the transmission pole height, which was again impossible as after 2 meters of land digging we started getting stone beneath it. After detailed discussion and indeginius technical analysis our engineering team came up with a brilliant idea of keeping the transmission pole at its own 10 meters height but to run the conductors from 8.5 meters height by shifting the cross arm position in the pole. As it was found that there was no shadow effect if the conductors were placed at a height of 8.5 meters or less above the ground.

Final adjustment has been made to keep the maximum possible output and minimum loss

Date:18/02/2022: 

Land clearance Work Started: Our team has started the land preparation and land leveling work for the 256/2, 250/2, 250/4 lands as the commissioning date for this two plant is at the earliest, after freezing all the finals drawings we’re left with another 30-35 days among which we’re targeted to commission 2, 1.4MWp solar plants within the park by 20th March. Another 1.4 MWp is on 20th April. Our team decided to prepare the lands for all these three plants all together to wrap up the works as quickly as possible.

Hurdle During Land Clearance:

- Doing a large scale project at a village area has always been a big challenge in terms of land clearance. The boundaries at the lands were not properly marked by govt. Surveyor which causes confusion among the villagers and the project developers, as no one was very particular about the boundaries, we as a developer did our best internal TS survey and Topo survey to properly understand the boundaries and mark it with stone, however since govt body was not involved in the process, the villagers were not completely inline with our marked boundaries.

- Due to Thin and long grass in 250/4 & 250/2 land the JCB seems ineffective for land clearing.

long and thin grass making JCB ineffective

Resolution: 

-Keeping in mind our tight timeline we must have to start our site activities, since already the rain was over in Tamil Nadu and Clock was ticking towards the timeline faster than ever. Since there was a confusion regarding the boundaries, our team decided to leave 2-3 meters of distance inland from our marked boundaries, and start land preparation work avoiding any further delay. Also decided to arrange a govt. Surveyor for the final boundary marking at the earliest.

- Rotavator is introduced, to clear the thin and long grasses in land 250/2 & 250/4.

Dozers are in use to level the lands

Rotavator is being effective on thin grass 

Date: 24/02/2022:

Pile marking and TS survey: After the lands are leveled and bushes are cleaned Pile marking work has started, the markings are made as per the Footing layout with the help of a TS machine.

Pile point Marking is happening with the help of Total Scale