ompresentation-intersolar2013ver3-131115095204-phpapp02.pdf

1. Solar PV O&M – The Indian Experience November 12, 2013 Mumbai, India

2. Solar PV Plants - Built to Last? “A review of 30,000 installations in Europe by the German solar monitoring firm Meteocontrol found 80 percent were underperforming. ” - New York Times, May 28, 2013 Solar O&M 2

3. What about India? Solar O&M 3 - Solar sector relatively new in India – no information readily available - RESolve Survey - Insights from more than 600 MW plants - Plants commissioned after January 2012 - States include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu among others

4. Agenda • Criticality of O&M • O&M – Global insights • O&M in India – RESolve Survey results • Takeaways Solar O&M 4

5. It all starts with LCOE Solar O&M 5 Levelised Cost of Electricity(LCOE) – Cost of energy generation over the lifetime Source: Sun Power

6. Levers to reduce LCOE Plant Performance Maximization Solar O&M 6 One-time Recurring ~ Rs.10-11 Lakhs/MW/Year One-time - 10% of the CAPEX

7. Factors affecting generation Solar O&M 7 Project Development - Land siting - Irradiation assessment - Conceptual design - Financing - Technology evaluation - EPC selection Construction - Engineering - Optimized design - Shading analysis - Row Spacing - Procurement - Component selection - Construction - Build quality Operation and Maintenance Phase • Pilferage • Grid availability • System uptime • Performance of sub-components Asset Creation Phase – About 1 Year Asset Management Phase – 25 Years

8. O&M Basics • Preventive Maintenance (PM) which includes routine inspection and servicing of equipment which help prevent breakdowns and reduce energy yield losses. PM is usually a scheduled activity. • Condition-Based Monitoring(CBM) involves monitoring of equipment condition and plant operations on a real-time basis and addresses a potential problem at a very early stage to prevent downtime. This requires a robust plant performance monitoring system. • Corrective Maintenance(CM) or Breakdown Maintenance(BM) includes repair of broken down equipment and is usually reactive. Solar O&M 8

9. Preventive Maintenance(PM) 1 Panel cleaning – At twice a month or depending upon the dust conditions 2 Vegetation Management – After rainfall and based on local conditions 3 DC & AC electrical sub system testing 4 Mechanical inspections 5 IV Curve Testing 6 Sensor Calibration 7 Security Systems 8 Documentation of events 9 Warranty Management 10 Diagnose faults through data mining Solar O&M 9

10. Condition-Based Monitoring(CBM) 1 Active Monitoring(Inverter Level) 2 Energy Meter Management 3 Real time monitoring and verification 4 Daily, Weekly and Monthly reports 5 Performance Ratio and Generation report 6 String level monitoring 7 Manage anomaly alerts and alarm management 8 Web portal 9 Historical data trends 10 Performance Optimization 11 In-depth analysis report 12 Accelerated PV degradation report 13 Security system(fire alarm, intrusion alarm) Solar O&M 10

11. Corrective Maintenance(CM) 1 Emergency Maintenance(Function check and 2 hrs response time) 2 Automated owner and technical plant alert(email/sms) 3 Failure analysis & report generation Solar O&M 11

13. Global experience • Electric Power Research Institute, July 2010 • Survey respondents – 6 utility companies, PV monitoring system providers, vertically integrated PV manufacturers, solar energy service providers • Eg. SunEdison, SunPower, Southern California Edison(SCE) Solar O&M 13

14. EPRI Survey coverage • In-House Vs Outsource O&M • Failure analysis • O&M Budgeting • Panel cleaning • Plant Monitoring and information collection • Warranty Management • Lessons learned Solar O&M 14 Focus of this presentation

15. Failure Analysis : 80-20 Rule Solar O&M 15 368 managed PV systems, 117 MW (Sun Edison) 20% of events caused 80% of lost energy generation

16. Failure Analysis – Failure Areas Solar O&M 16 Inverters failed the most number of times, but bigger impact due to AC subsystems

17. Failure Analysis – Root Cause Solar O&M 17 Components used and construction quality impacts leading causes of energy loss

18. EPRI Survey takeaways - Identify the most critical areas of failure – 80:20 rule - Inverters fail the most in terms of number of events, but AC subsystems caused high energy losses as per EPRI survey - Component selection and build quality extremely important Solar O&M 18

20. RESolve Survey Overview Companies that participated in the survey Type 1 A Project Developer not wanting to be identified Developer/IPP 2Waaree Energies EPC 3Sterling and Wilson EPC 4Tata Power Solar Developer and EPC 5Solairedirect India Developer/IPP and EPC 6Staten Solar EPC 7L&T EPC 8Vikram EPC • Total size of projects under O&M – 566 MW + • States covered – Rajasthan – Gujarat – Tamil Nadu – Maharashtra – Andhra Pradesh – Others Solar O&M 20

21. RESolve Survey Overview Solar O&M 21 O&M Contract Duration Average 9 Years Median 5 Years Range 1 year to 25 years 5 Years most frequent, followed by 10 Years Annual O&M Cost Average Rs. 9 Lakhs/MW Median Rs. 9.5 Lakhs/MW Range Rs. 6 to 10 Lakhs/MW/Year Majority in the range of Rs. 10 Lakhs/MW/Year

22. Major Failure events Solar O&M 22 Note: 1. DC Subsystems: All components on the DC side before the inverter 2. AC Subsystems: All components on the AC side of the inverter(including LV and HV) 82% 77% 61% 57% 52% 46% 25% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Grid Issues Inverters DC Subsystems AC Subsystems SCADA PV Modules Mounting Structures

23. Energy loss causes Solar O&M 23 Note: 1. DC Subsystems: All components on the DC side before the inverter 2. AC Subsystems: All components on the AC side of the inverter(including LV and HV) 93% 75% 70% 64% 55% 27% 16% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Grid Issues Inverters DC Subsystems AC Subsystems PV Modules Mounting Structures SCADA

24. Failure Causes Solar O&M 24 66% 50% 48% 32% 18% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Grid non-availability Component defects Build quality Vandalism Other

25. Some comments from respondents • “ Absolute energy guarantee should be done away with more focus on periodic PR measurement and corrective measures on a regular basis. Emphasis on Training for Engineers and Technicians at field level.” • “Major differentiators are 1) Cleaning of Modules 2) Grid availability. All other losses are very low. Inverter and SMU losses happens every rarely. Energy loss due to AC system, Structure, module etc are very, very rare.” • “Remote sites causing higher O&M cost. Gap between the projected generation and actual is having a wide gap due to non availability of radiation data in the initial period.” Solar O&M 25

27. Critical areas of failure - 1 • The Grid – Major bottleneck – Highest number of failure events and highest loss of generation – Unfortunately, this is an external non-controllable cause • Inverters – Heart of the PV system – Biggest internal controllable cause, in line with global trends • DC and AC sub-systems also require attention Solar O&M 27

28. Critical areas of failure - 2 • PV Modules, SCADA and mounting structures rank lower • Failure causes – components used and build quality Bottomline – Entire electrical system requires utmost attention Solar O&M 28

29. What could be done? - 1 • The Grid – Infrastructure problem : push towards improved grid infrastructure • Inverters – Fool-proof technical evaluation before procurement – Ensure excellent after-sales support from vendor – Critical spare parts to be maintained at site – Invest in training of field O&M personnel Solar O&M 29

30. What could be done? - 2 • DC and AC sub-systems – Component selection critical – Trained manpower in the field can help in up-time • PV Modules, SCADA and mounting structures – Though not critical during the initial years, these components can create head-ache during later years – Focus to be on component selection and build quality Solar O&M 30

31. Finally, Excellence in O&M can be the difference between “good” plant performance and “great” plant performance!! Solar O&M 31

32. Thank you Madhavan Nampoothiri Founder and Director madhavan@re-solve.in www.re-solve.in Subscribe to the RESolve blog here. Solar O&M 32

33. About RESolve • Advisory firm with strong capabilities in Strategic, Regulatory , Commercial and Technical aspects of renewable energy projects • Founded by professionals from India and Germany with strong global exposure • Specific focus on Solar PV and Wind in India • Offerings in – Advisory on Concept-to-Commissioning of PV projects – Policy and Regulatory advice Solar O&M 33

34. RESolve Whitepaper Solar O&M 34 • RESolve regularly publishes whitepapers • The most read and downloaded whitepaper is “ Sunrise in Gujarat” • • This whitepaper ranks 50 solar PV plants in Gujarat based on their energy generation in the first year of operations • Click on the adjacent image to download it

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