Energetica India Magazine -October 2020

SOLAR POWER 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. 36 energetica INDIA- October_2020 Nitish Mehta Co-Founder, Artha Energy Resources 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 un- derstood 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 fu- ture too. Here is what an Asset Manager should then track: a. Change in Credit rating : The cred - it rating of company can change for n number of reasons such as failed expan- sion, 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 pay - ment delays. c. Delta between solar to DISCOM power consumption : Charging deemed generation and being able to recoup the same are two different elements. All de- velopers have realized this over time. Hence, it’s important for a developer to track the Delta between the consump - tion 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 above KPI’s can ensure C&I de - velopers 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 compar - ing 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 de- signer must manually enter system unavailability, which is usually kept be - tween 1-2% and not actual failure data. This should be tracked and taken as a reference point for a future project con- nected with in the same substation.