NRG Systems announced that its longtime partner, Mumbai-based RK Systems, has supplied and erected India’s tallest lattice met tower.

Commissioned June 2017 in Southern India, the tower stretches 150m high and features an array of NRG products, including 40C anemometers, 200P wind vanes, 110S temperature sensors, a BP20 barometric pressure sensor, and a SymphoniePRO data logger with iPackGPS for bankable, secure, and reliable data collection. 

RK Systems created the 150m tower for one of India’s leading Independent Power Producers in renewable energy. The decision to commission the tower was spurred by the growing proliferation of taller turbines. According to Arun Mehra, Director of RK Systems, “In response to the increase in hub heights, and in order to perform accurate resource assessment campaigns that reduce uncertainty, it has become necessary to capture data at these heights.”

RK Systems overcame a number of design challenges to erect the 150m tower. To keep the tower stable, secure, and under the 250kg weight limit, Mehra and his team introduced a design that used square tubes – a first in India. Mehra said, “It is well known that square tubes are stronger than an ‘L’ angle or channel.” The tower was then subjected to the Indian government’s current wind load software, which is 10% more demanding than the preceding software. The tower cleared the test to 55m per second.

Arvinder Singh, NRG’s Senior Territory Sales Manager, Asia Pacific, said “NRG Systems is really proud of RK Systems’ achievement. RK Systems’ experience manufacturing and installing over 1,100 met towers in India and neighboring countries coupled with their ability to produce towers this tall will help the Indian wind industry grow by enabling developers to measure at increased hub-heights and, in turn, better predict energy output at a potential wind site.

“By incorporating NRG Systems’ measurement products into these campaigns, developers can be assured that they are collecting professional, finance-grade data. In fact, more projects have been successfully financed thanks to data collected by NRG Systems measurement equipment than any other brand, which is why industry-leading independent engineering consultancies specify NRG Systems for resource assessment campaigns.”