Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. has received its first overseas commercial order for power line communication (PLC) string monitoring units from a German photovoltaic (PV) power generation and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) company, bes new Energy GmbH. The products have been installed at an existing solar power plant (in operation for about 12 years with an output of 5 MW) and have been operating since October this year. In Europe, a great number of PV power plants have been installed over the last two decades.

Accordingly, many solar power plants and string monitoring units have been in operation for more than 10 years, and an increasing number of facilities are experiencing operational problems due to breakdowns and deterioration after a long period of operation. For this reason, there is a growing need to replace string monitoring units. Looking at this trend at existing power plants, Sumitomo Electric conducted a project to demonstrate the advantages of its PLC string monitoring units in Germany in cooperation with Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE.

As a result, the products were highly evaluated for their significant improvement in power generation efficiency, which became a key reason for winning this order.