Smart Sustainability Suitefor Solar PV Power Plants

The capacity utilization factor of a solar power system is highly dependent on the seasonal variations and various site-specific factors like dust accumulation on PV panels, efficiency of critical components, effectiveness of O&M, etc. Thus for solar power systems, it is vital to comprehensively manage various aspects of plants operations and maintenance for good availability and yield.

Lack of relevant information at the right time and place

Modern solar power stations are large – stretching over several acres. Multiple such remotely located power plants add to the complexity of operations. The parameters should reach key personnel at a central head-office to enable them to make informed decisions ensuring the optimal management of the plant.

Slow response time in information flow

Solar power plants see massive drops in performance on account of lack of infrastructure to detect silent losses and communicate these to users, seriously affecting O&M and thereby return on investment of these assets. Actionable information is the key to trouble-free operation avoidance of unforeseen failures and improved performance coupled with cost savings.

EcoAxis' Internet of Things (IoT) based remote monitoring solution provides a platform for multiple solar PV power plants to be critically monitored and thus helps achieving maximum utilization of the plants. We have ready solutions for roof-top and large scale power plants.

This cloud based solution tracks critical parameters of entire power plant operations (such as solar radiation flux, wind speed, ambient and solar panel temperature, ambient humidity, DC and AC power levels, string voltages and current, inverter status, status of switchgear etc.), performance (solar panel efficiency, inverter efficiency), and maintenance on a minute-by-minute basis —or even faster.

The system provides authentic information through interactive dashboards and reports to plant owners, operations and maintenance managers and personnel and also to top management – Any device, Anytime, Anywhere. The system integrates easily with smart devices provides SMS and email notification to key personnel for critical plant conditions that need immediate attention, thus empowering plant users with information to increase overall plant availability and load factor.

Do you face these challenges?

Introduction

EcoAxis Solution

In case of larger MW scale plants, silent losses like failures of few PV strings, shadowing or inverter failures; can go unnoticed, leading to serious losses in yield.

Continuous monitoring of a solar PV power system not only helps in quantifying the output of the system in different weather conditions but also helps in identifying any deviation from normal operation and thus react to any creeping problems before they get out of hand.

EcoAxis' remote monitoring solution provides a decision support system, with continuously monitored data, automated analytics for enhancing efficacy of operations & maintenance of solar PV power plants of capacities ranging from a few kW to a few MW. Additionally, EcoAxis solution generates alerts in case of string or inverter failures as well as any deviation of parameters from defined range. IPPs and O&M contractors, managers with multiple remote solar PV power plants in different locations can monitor these plants, from one location & also benchmark performance of these plants.

Solution ArchitectureSample architecture for a typical roof-top power plant

Sample architecture for a MW scale power plant with a local SCADA

Sample Analytics

Overall Energy Production

String Combiner Box

Inverter Performance

Following are alerts related to string failures:

Ÿ String failure alerts in case any particular string current falls or string become open

Ÿ Earth fault alerts in case of earth faults related to PV strings

Ÿ String temperature fault in case the temperature of any PV cell in the string exceeds a pre-defined threshold

Ÿ Alerts for low PV efficiency fore-warning the need of cleaning the arrays

Following alerts related to inverters failures:

Ÿ Inverter room high temperature failure

Ÿ Inverter trip

Sample Alerts

Ÿ Through use of big data analytics, the system provides a platform to analyze multiple site performance together, bench-mark sites against each other and instill best practices across the plants.

Ÿ Using role based analytics, the system delivers crisp and actionable information to key stake-holders in operations, maintenance, top management etc. to facilitate quick readressal of impending issues.

Ÿ Continuous performance evaluation of the solar strings and instant alerts in cases of drop in performance helps in identifying and optimizing cleaning intervals of the solar panels.

Ÿ Continuous monitoring of string health condition helps identifying and resolving the string failure conditions and maximizes Plant Load Factor.

Ÿ Instant SMS alerts in case of inverter trip etc. helped identifying and resolving issues quickly, thereby increasing system availability.

Ÿ Overall optimized costs of O&M, improved availability, performance, RoI and reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Key Benefits of EcoAxis’ Solution

A.T.E. ENTERPRISES PRIVATE LIMITED

T-126, T Block, MIDC, Bhosari, Pune 411 026T | +91 20 3088 1100 E | contact@ecoaxisindia.comW | www.ecoaxisindia.com / www.ateindia.com

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