A mountaintop cell phone repeater station runs on a combination of wind and solar power. This aerial photo shows the dense forest surrounding the site; detail shows the solar array. Engineers 100 km away monitor the power systems remotely.

A hybrid wind and solar system provides constant power to a new Vodafone Fiji cellular phone repeater station atop a 1,500-foot mountain outside the village of Muani.

The station is located on Kadavu, an island approximately 100 kilometers south of the main island of Fiji. Access to the site requires travel by airplane, boat and foot. But engineers don't plan to make that trek often.

The site's designers decided to install a real-time monitoring system that would minimize costly maintenance trips while ensuring a high level of service to cellular customers.

"We're seeing an increased focus on reliability, accountability and performance," said Chris Beekhuis, President and CTO of Fat Spaniel Technologies, supplier of the remote monitoring system. "This demonstrates that a high standard of service and system-critical electricity supply can be cost-effectively delivered to even the most remote end users."

Milestone for Fat Spaniel

This site is the 500th installation of Fat Spaniel Technologies' PV2Web distributed energy monitoring system, the company says.

PV2Web monitors the off-grid generation system and delivers a real-time, web-based data dashboard. Remote monitoring and diagnostics promise to reduce maintenance costs for the site.

Fat Spaniel's products have been increasingly popular in the U.S., where they are used to verify production-based incentives and renewable energy credits. No software or computer hardware is needed at the generating site, and PV2Web is designed to integrate with other systems. Commercial buildings with photovoltaics sometimes use the company's products to feed data to larger automation systems.

"It is a very rewarding experience to see the communities in these remote islands have access to communications that we often take for granted."
--Bruce Clay, CEO of Clay Engineering.

Important step for Kadavu villagers

Utility power is limited to the larger of the 330 Fiji Islands, while diesel generators have been the major power source for the outer islands.

The mountaintop station delivers mobile phone coverage for a radius of approximately 40 kilometers, providing ten villages with phone services that were previously only available via satellite.

"The Muani system is one of three Vodafone Fiji sites we are currently monitoring with Fat Spaniel Technologies, and we have another three sites in the planning stage," said Bruce Clay, CEO of Clay Engineering, the firm that installed the renewable energy equipment and maintains the site. "It is a very rewarding experience to see the communities in these remote islands have access to communications that we often take for granted."