Power plant maintenance the purpose of the monitoring system is to allow

supervision of the energy flow in a PV power plant.

Maintenance is usually carried out on-site by specialised
requirements for an effective monitoring include
technicians or subcontractors, according to the
dataloggers capable of collecting data (such as energy
Operations team’s analyses. a core element of
generated, irradiance, module temperature, etc.) of all
maintenance services, Preventive Maintenance involves
relevant components (such as inverters, energy meters,
regular visual and physical inspections, as well as
pyranometers, temperature sensors) and storing at least
verification activities necessary to comply with the
one month of data with a recording granularity of up to
operating manuals. the annual Maintenance Plan (see
15 minutes; as well as a reliable Monitoring Portal
an example in Annex b) includes a list of inspections that
(interface) for the visualisation of the collected data and
should be performed regularly. Corrective Maintenance
the calculation of KPis. as best practice, the monitoring
covers activities aimed at restoring a faulty PV plant,
system should ensure open data accessibility, in order
equipment or component to a status where it can
to enable easy transition between monitoring
perform the required function. Extraordinary
platforms. as remotely monitored and controlled
Maintenance actions, usually not covered by the O&M
systems, PV plants have exposure to cybersecurity risks,
fixed fee, can be necessary after major unpredictable
it is therefore vital that installations undertake a cyber
events in the plant site that require substantial repair
security analysis and implement a cybersecurity
works. additional maintenance services include tasks
management system.
such as module cleaning and vegetation control.

Key Performance Indicators

Revamping and repowering
important KPis include PV power plant KPis, directly
revamping and repowering are usually considered a
reflecting the performance of the PV power plant, and
part of extraordinary maintenance from a contractual
O&M Contractor KPis, assessing the performance of the
point of view – however, due to their increasing
O&M service provided. PV power plant KPis include
significance in the solar O&M market, these Guidelines
important indicators such as the Performance ratio
address them in a standalone chapter. revamping and
(Pr), which is the energy generated divided by the
repowering are defined as the replacement of old,
energy obtainable under ideal conditions expressed as
power production related components within a power
a percentage; and uptime/availability, parameters that
plant by new components to enhance the overall
represent, as a percentage, the time during which the
performance of the installation. this chapter presents
plant operates over the total possible time it is able to
best practices in module and inverter revamping and
operate. While uptime reflects all downtimes regardless
repowering and general, commercial considerations to
of the cause, availability involves certain exclusion
keep in mind before implementation.
factors to account for downtimes not attributable to the
O&M Contractor (such as force majeure), a difference
Spare Parts Management important for contractual purposes. O&M Contractor
KPis include acknowledgement time (the time between
Spare Parts Management is an inherent and substantial
the alarm and the acknowledgement), intervention
part of O&M aimed at ensuring that spare parts are
time (the time between acknowledgement and
available in a timely manner for Corrective Maintenance
reaching the plant by a technician) and resolution time
in order to minimise the downtime of a solar PV plant.
(the time to resolve the fault starting from the moment
the spare parts should be owned by the asset Owner
of reaching the PV plant). acknowledgement time plus
while normally maintenance, storage and
intervention time are called response time, an
replenishment should be the responsibility of the O&M
indicator used for contractual guarantees.
Contractor. it is considered a best practice not to include
the cost of replenishment of spare parts in the O&M fixed
fee. these Guidelines also include a minimum list of
spare parts that are considered essential.

Data and monitoring requirements

10 / SolarPower Europe / O&M BESt PraCtiCES GuiDElinES