The LGate 360 features include a high quality metal enclosure; a wide-input range power supply accommodating all three phase power configurations; and integrated RS-485 surge suppression. The simplified design eliminates commissioning delays caused by extensive on-site configuration and the need for external power supplies for peripheral sensors, decreasing the number of man-hours spent in the field.

The standard configuration combines a revenue-grade power meter and Modbus-enabled datalogger pre-wired in an outdoor-rated enclosure. According to Adrian De Luca, Locus Energy's vice president of commercial sales and marketing, the LGate 360 can also be specified to collect data from a variety of peripheral devices and meteorological sensors, allowing site owners and operators to more efficiently manage solar PV assets.

The key for Locus Energy, which boasts more than 30,000 solar monitoring systems in the field, is to continually strive to reduce system complexity. "As solar gains greater penetration in the commercial and utility sectors, ease of installation will become increasingly important to reducing soft costs, which is critical to accelerating widespread adoption," De Luca explained. "The LGate 360 reflects the latest innovations in our ongoing efforts to make monitoring systems easier to install and maintain."

While one of the smaller costs of a PV system, solar monitoring solutions can be one of the most difficult components to design, install and commission. Locus Energy's data acquisition systems hardware supports a wide range of metering options and leverages cellular communications, allowing system stakeholders to drive down the overall cost and complexity of system installations. Combined with full-featured and easy to use web-based software, Locus Energy's monitoring solutions vastly simplify the process of gathering, organizing and visualizing solar performance data.