candi solar Asset Management

Embracing Digitalisation in Solar

Solar as an Asset

Investing in a solar plant is a significant undertaking for any business. While candi offers numerous finance solutions, including their PPA, the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the solar systems needs to be considered once they have been installed. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems must be kept in good operational condition in order to generate power as expected over their lifetime and to ensure that their true value is realised. 

In the traditional model, the offtaker of the solar energy finances the system which, once built, is maintained by a solar operator under an O&M contract. Additionally, owners of larger assets often outsource the general technical and commercial management of their solar plant, which includes the supervision of the O&M contractor’s work, to an asset manager. 

The team at candi likes to keep things simple. Instead of fragmenting the aspects of solar financing, O&M and asset management, they are all offered to customers as a wrapped solution. This offering makes the entire experience more seamless so that candi customers do not need to manage each part individually. candi’s local asset management teams are further supported by a global asset intelligence team. This team is determined to operate with digitalisation at the forefront of their thinking, making sure to provide a data and insight infrastructure enabling a data-driven approach to asset management.

Ngoni Mhuruyengwe, Solar Solutions Engineer at candi solar on site at Riverside Security Residential Estates, South Africa

candi’s Data-Driven Asset Management Approach

Through the utilisation of data and analytics to predict long-term trends and monitor individual variables, asset management is made significantly more efficient and effective. This is particularly useful when operating a range of solar systems spread over a large area, where constant in-person monitoring and on-site diagnosis of faults is not feasible. As Chetan Bane, Asset Management Lead at candi India emphasises, “digitalisation really is the best way to manage distributed asset portfolios in the solar sector, that is why we are intent on prioritising it wherever possible.”

Boosting the potential of solar power plants is one of the key contributors to a plant’s lifetime value. It is generally based on three key principles: maximising generation, optimising efforts and ensuring safety. candi’s asset management team builds on these principles with services that incorporate digitalisation to unlock more value for candi’s customers and teams. Embracing digitalisation in this way is not the norm in the industry and candi believes that they are unlocking more asset management opportunities that have often been neglected, or underestimated, by the sector.

Maximising Generation

candi’s revenue and the customers’ savings are dependent on system performance and therefore maximising the system’s generation is a key focus for the asset management and intelligence teams at candi. It starts with ensuring that all service providers meet candi’s high standards, and are available to remedy issues if required. Additionally, equipment needs to be supported by the correct warranties and service level agreements, all of which are captured at procurement. From a strategic perspective, this aspect requires design reviews and forward planning to anticipate and prepare for the needs at different stages of a plant’s life cycle.

Traditionally, system generation is focused on the scheduling of cleaning and maintenance of the solar system. For candi, cleaning and maintenance also means looking at innovative solutions that allow for more power to be generated with even less intervention. One such on-site example is candi’s sprinkler cleaning systems. While there are a lot of solutions the team brings on-site, where candi takes asset management a step further is in its focus on predictive maintenance. “Most operators use data to simply search for and rectify faults,” says Gianni Ruch, Asset Intelligence Lead at candi. “What we’re currently looking at is how to use big data to optimise operations across the global portfolio and further use machine learning to predict when maintenance will be needed before a problem is even evident.” 

Frans Strauss & Ngoni Mhuruyengwe at Schneider Electric, Midrand, South Africa

Through combining machine learning and internet of things (IoT), candi’s asset management teams can remotely diagnose issues by assessing various data points’ behaviour over time. These efforts reduce the need for manual monitoring, allow for better reporting, automatic fault detection as well as ensure that the status of the plant is known at all times. This makes it easier to get to the root causes of any issues and to spend more time focusing on maintenance solutions where required. It also allows for the right information to be easily shared with the correct individuals when needed – from in-house teams, to contractors, and to end customers.

As Thaine Sasman, Asset Management Lead at candi South Africa, explains, “Our approach is to gather extensive sets of high-quality data and derive intelligence so that we can pre-empt problems beyond traditional analysis methods, especially in a distributed rooftop space where we need to be smarter about O&M.” For example, where the industry standard is to collect 15-20 data points per device on site every 15 minutes, candi collects 40 data points per device every 5 minutes. This additional data gives the team the flexibility to assess more information remotely and provide solutions before needing to arrive at the solar system in person. candi achieves the additional data collection through a number of intensive steps, including customised code allowing to capture additional variables.

Ghatge Patil Industries, Maharashtra, India

Optimising Solar System Monitoring Efforts

Optimising solar system monitoring efforts has predominantly to do with the improvement of processes related to the ongoing monitoring of the solar and battery systems. The collection and utilisation of data plays a key role in optimising efforts and ultimately maximising the team’s capabilities and effectiveness.

While it is common practice to utilise a variety of hardware combined with a variety of different portals for data acquisition and visualisation, the candi asset management team have configured and customised a standardised data acquisition hardware fleet that is solar PV hardware agnostic and is connected to a standardised monitoring portal. Through giving a view of the portfolio via a single interface, maintenance is rendered more easily and reduces the detection time of any faults or issues. This single interface also allows for standardising dashboards and aggregating data for analysis across the asset portfolio. 

In South Africa, the asset management team have developed a candi version of a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) to streamline communication and reduce time-to-resolution of issues. If maintenance is prioritised, generation is optimised. In asset management, even the smallest factors can have a long-term impact on the way a system performs.

Going forward, candi seeks to use their databases to effectively train machine learning algorithms to predict faults and proactively give an indication of what needs to be maintained. These machine learning algorithms are currently being investigated and tested in partnership with the FHNW University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. Additionally, the asset intelligence team is planning to improve its analyses to identify further cost saving opportunities for existing customers from a standard setup to an automated process.

Asset Management & Solar Solutions workshop to assess the candi solar data loggers

Ensuring Safety

Maintenance is carried out by technicians, often working at heights, and they therefore need to be protected while they’re on the job. To make sure this principle is met, candi designs all new systems so that they are accessible and guarantees that the workers operating them are thoroughly trained and equipped. 

While on-site safety is non-negotiable, data security plays an important part of the data management and analysis. In place of insecure file transfers directly to 3rd party monitoring providers, it is a key priority for candi to ensure maximum safety of all data obtained. In efforts to contribute to achieving this, the team has piloted a process of sending data in an encrypted format via a state-of-the-art IoT messaging protocol to their own database, thus obtaining full control and data security along the entire data pipeline.

Riverside Security Residential Estates, Gauteng, South Africa

Ultimately, the focus on efficiency and innovation is woven into candi’s asset management approach. If you’d like to find out more about candi’s offering, get in touch with us to start the conversation.