2014 pv reliability, operations & maintenance workshop: o&m with scada, alsoenergy
DESCRIPTION
2014 PV Reliability, Operations & Maintenance Workshop: O&M with SCADA, AlsoEnergy, Kevin SuhrTRANSCRIPT
Overview
5/15/2014
Presented by: Kevin Suhr Sales and Service Engineer AlsoEnergy Inc.
O&M with SCADA
• 2 years field installation
• 3 years monitoring installation and technical support
• #1 Third Party Commercial Solar Monitoring provider in North
America
• 100’s of calls per week
5/15/2014
Background
• Given on Utility and Industrial sites (50kW +)
• Data Tracking from day of Commissioning
• Design Model Analysis (PVsyst)
• Performance Benchmark
• Alerting
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Value of Monitoring
• Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition
• Not necessarily real-time or for grid stability
• Additional functionality to troubleshoot or repair remotely
• Provides cost savings
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SCADA
• Commissioning
• Insuring proper installation
• Full documentation of as-built site
• Setting the performance benchmark
• Scheduled Maintenance
• String Testing
• Inverter Maintenance
• Tracker Maintenance
• Cleaning
• Unplanned Outage or Degradation
• Loss of revenue
• Create plan of action
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Operations and Maintenance
• Determine validity of alert
• Co-located Sites
• Known Failure Conditions
• Site Documentation
• Cost of Alert Condition
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Plan of Action
• Reduce Truck Rolls
• One Stop Repairs
• Adjust Maintenance Routines
• Weigh future hardware decisions
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End Goal
• Efficiency through software
• Operations package available for alert-driven work order
generation
• Financial tracking of repairs and downtime
• Automated reporting
• Custom solutions
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AlsoEnergy Approach
• Remote breaker control
• Analyze and reset
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Custom Solutions
• Cameras
• Heated Pyranometers
• Snow Sensors
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Custom Solutions
• Enable / Disable
• Inverter fault resets
• Dependent on Inverter Manufactures
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Custom Solutions
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Electrical Engineer
IT/Computer Technician
Controls Engineer
Skill vs Location
Onsite Remote
Electrician
Technician
O&M Manager
PV Design Engineer
Performance Analyst
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O&M Module
Tally event histories
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O&M Module
Track loss of revenue, due to downtime or maintenance
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• Cross team access
• Tech, O&M Manager, Performance Analyst
• Consolidation of site tracking • See Monitoring along side Work Tickets • All open issues
• Portfolio Wide Comparison • Group issues to problem hardware and site underperformance
• Hardware Degradation
Adoption of O&M Tracking
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Challenges and Future Goals
• Smart Equipment
• Inverters with accurate, human readable, O&M Faults
• Combiners / Recombiners with internal analysis
• DC Power Meters to separate PV performance from Inverter performance
• AC subsystem monitoring
• Breaker, Fuse, catastrophic failure
• Balance between Sensor Accuracy and Ease of Installation, Calibration
• Using scientific instruments in the field is not cost effective or a long term
solution.
5/15/2014
Thank You
Kevin Suhr| Sales and Service Engineer Also Energy, Inc. 3360 Mitchell Lane, Suite A, Boulder CO 80301 [email protected] http://www.AlsoEnergy.com http://www.DECKMonitoring.com Home of 2 Leading Software Products: PowerTrack and DECK Monitoring