A SYSTEM FOR REGULATING ACCESS TO ELECTRICAL ENERGY OF A SOLAR HOME SYSTEM

Patent Title: A SYSTEM FOR REGULATING ACCESS TO ELECTRICAL ENERGY OF A SOLAR HOME SYSTEM

Description

PISOLAR is a payment innovation for owning Solar Home System (SHS), enabling low-income users to afford clean energy with low up-front cost and cheaper incremental payments. The system is comprising a solar home system with a PV module, a charge controller, and a battery, a control module being connected to said solar home system further comprising computing, a card reader to access a smart card, and, a relay module that when activated, it transmits electrical energy from the charge controller to a load module, and a display module to determine the status of the SHS. The technology is granted with letters of patent by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

​Innovative Features and Benefits:

The innovation enables affordable and easy financing through incremental payment using a pay-as-you-go solar home system (PAYG-SHS) model until an accrued amount is achieved for ownership. PISOLAR module is easily adaptable with its (3) payment options/module depending on the preferred household orientation:

Household Orientation                      Payment Module

  1. Clustered                                            LPWAN
  2. Dispersed                                           SMS
  3. Clustered and/or Dispersed                RFID

The PISOLAR module is reliable and fault-tolerant due to is redundant design, which allows the use of the other payment module whenever the other payment module fails.

Applications and Commercial Opportunities:

PISOLAR has a control module that regulates the flow of energy in a SHS. It has a card reader that accesses a smart card that contains an energy credit. The energy credit provides access to the solar home system. A Village Local Entrepreneur (VLE) is a payment hub that provides to a typical householder through the smart card by paying the desired energy credit to obtain the said energy credit (refer to Picture 2 on the left).

  1. The VLE loads the smart card through the load module. The householder taps the smart card containing the energy credit to the control module;
  2. The control module activates the relay module, which provides energy to the electrical loads; and
  3. As the load consumes energy, the energy credit decrements until depleted.

In terms of scalability, PISOLAR may consist of subsystems that can be deployable over

multiple locations and is monitored by a Back-End Server. Each VLE is connected to the said server for digitization of payment, disposal of energy credit and management of SHS and clients (refer to Picture 3 on the left).

This will be useful for the energy industry as a payment platform to increase the adaptability of solar home kits to their clients, since it offers affordability through the PAYG-SHS model.

If you are interested to know more about this technology and its owners, please feel free to contact Engr. Aldrex Aviso at aldrex.aviso@ipophil.gov.ph

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