Asset Management: Unlocking the True Potential of Solar Power Plants
An analysis on understanding myths related to asset management. A take on what companies need to focus on for managing solar power plants and significance of an asset manager in increasing the productivity and longevity of a solar power plant.
Solar plants once built will generate electricity for 25 Years as long as the sun is shining. There is a misconception that a solar power plant requires minimal management and operational effort. We all have heard these claims; many of us also claim this to be true. However, in reality it’s not. As more and more solar plants are being developed, we have understood that, this is a myth. This myth has made asset management the most underrated job profile in Indian C&I solar ecosystem.
In this article, I would like to share a few not so common KPI and benchmarking that a company should track so to make sure plant is generating constant cash flows.
Risk Management:
While investing in C&I, a developer should rely on historical credit of off-taker to infuse funds. As we are aware, there is no guarantee for a highly rated company maintaining its current positions in the future too. Here is what an Asset Manager should then track:
a. Change in Credit rating:
The credit rating of company can change for n number of reasons such as failed expansion, low demand or poor management practice. In the event, the credit rating of a company is revised downwards, this should be informed immediately to the management for active tracking. There are many instances where certain companies may not have a credit rating. In such a scenario an asset manager should work with the finance team to develop key financial ratio that must be tracked on regular basis.
b. Average payment delays:
The time lag between an invoice and payment should be actively tracked. There must be key attention paid to increase in payment delays.
c. Delta between solar to DISCOM power consumption:
Charging deemed generation and being able to recoup the same are two different elements. All developers have realized this over time. Hence, it’s important for a developer to track the Delta between the consumption from the DISCOM and from Solar. There must be enough cushion built in to ensure that solar power generation does not exceed the demand at the factory during down-turns in industry cycles.
These These above KPI’s can ensure C&I developers to monitor the financial health of off-taker and gauge the effectiveness of their investment committee decisions in the long run.
Design:
a. Shadow or soiling loss: By comparing data of actual generation of strings with theoretical generation for a period of one year one can find actual generation and shadow loss. Also, by slicing and dicing such data, we can discover if any panels are at shadow or not.
b. Inverter to generation Meter loss: By comparing the AC output of inverter with Solar meter, we can find AC loss which needs to be checked and taken reference for future projects. Increase in AC loss over time would require prompt diagnosis.
c. Loss of generation due to grid failure: While designing, the solar designer must manually enter system unavailability, which is usually kept between 1-2% and not actual failure data. This should be tracked and taken as a reference point for a future project connected with in the same substation.
d. Inverter Clipping Loss: Calculation of generation loss due to clipping this can be helpful to check for overload consideration.
All these points above can be used to evaluate design standards.
Panels:
a. Temp loss: Temperature adjusted DC generation should be calculated and plotted to verify temperature co-effect of panel at site level and at band / Module level across geographic location. This will help in identifying correct temperature coefficient which can be adjusted for future projects assumption.
b. Degradation Calculation: By adjusting temperature and irradiation across geography one can compare generation difference YoY to estimate degradation on string level. By comparing multiple strings of same and multiple sites one can determine need of thermal scanning and true degradation.
Above mentioned KPI should be checked at multiple location level to verify the quality of panel that is supplied
Inverter:
a. Inverter Efficiency: By checking Ratio of DC inputs with AC output we can check the efficiency.
b. Temperature loss: Checking drop- in efficiency against a rise in temperature to check on temperature loss.
c. Resolution Time: Average time to resolve the issue once the ticket is raised for a particular inverter make.
d. Meantime between Inverter failure: Mean time between inverter getting failed.
e. Daytime to inverter work time: Ratio of total day time against inverter running time.
Above mentioned, KPIs should be checked at multiple location level to verify the quality of inverter that is supplied.
O&M Team:
a. Soiling Loss: Ratio of Temperature and irradiation Adjusted Specific hourly generation before and after cleaning. Based on this ratio cleaning cycle can be calculated.
b. Average Resolution time: Average resolution time once breakdown ticket is raised, one can also create a weighted average based on the severity.
The above mentioned KPIs should be check based on O&M Team/employee to evaluate team/ employee
To conclude with we, at Artha Energy Resources, believe that asset management is not a one man’s job. It’s a collective effort of people working in the company, site data is actual truth, not datasheets, excel and simulation. Hence, we have listed some of basic matrix that an asset manager should track. To prosper as a developer, we need to know how various technical and non-technical parts are functioning on real time basis vis-a-vis our estimates. Feedback needs to be incorporated during the design phase itself. Only then can we genuinely ensure our plants are designed with the highest levels of accuracy and be able to guarantee generation to our consumer and returns to our investor and be able to live up to those guarantees without payment of any penalties.
- Nitish Mehta, Co-Founder, Artha Energy Resources
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