DESCRIPTION

Ignitis Innovation in collaboration with Inion – Lithuanian solar monitoring and control solutions provider has started a pilot project to better understand the availability and technical feasibility of B2C PV solar plant remote monitoring and maintenance dispatch solutions. By utilizing the solution PV owners have a more convenient access to plant monitoring data in real time and local language and Ignitis gains an oversight of all connected objects in one view/portfolio to remotely track the status of all plant sites, compare generation, detect errors remotely and be able to provide better customer service.

PROBLEM

Growing number of individual PV installations in Lithuania also results in a widening variety of PV equipment. Different inverter manufacturers provide their users with different plant generation monitoring solutions and functionalities. Some allow data export and some don't, some indicate fault/error codes and some descriptions. This not only differentiates customer experience but introduces difficulties to provide seamless PV plant maintenance for the technical team. The middle layer of a PV monitoring system allows unification of data output and standardizes customer experience despite the PV equipment (e.g. modules, inverter) used as well as allows efficient and clear equipment maintenance.

SOLUTION

Remote monitoring is an important (and will be increasingly essential) addition to B2C solar installation business not only as it helps customers understand their generation effectiveness, track the financials/payback of PV ownership but also because Ignitis, by accessing and analysing more customer PV performance data can provide a better service, convenience and “peace of mind” for all customers as well as extend customer relationship beyond one-time sale of hardware. Using such system general module, connection or inverter errors can be detected remotely and early, without a need for primary inspection visit, fixed sooner and possibly cheaper. Also, low efficiency of generation due to other reasons can be detected and investigated remotely and improvements offered to customers.

STATUS AND PROGRESS

The testing of the solution for private PV monitoring hardware has been performed between June 2021 and March 2022 and involved 11 new Ignitis PV solar plant owners.

Feedback has been collected from customers involved and Ignitis PV technical maintenance team. Customers assessed the suitability and usability of the online PV monitoring platform high (8.8 out of 10) and indicated that real-time, daily and monthly energy generation data as well as calculation of savings are most relevant functionalities of the system.

If this system was a paid additional service to PV owners it has been indicated that customers would be willing to pay up to 2 EUR/month to be able to use the hardware and application.

Want to know more? Contact our Innovation expert Karolis Mirinavičius - [email protected]