A year on from its acquisition of monitoring and control firm skytron energy, First Solar has fleshed out further details of the operations and maintenance (O&M) business the two companies are jointly developing.
In a briefing on day two of Intersolar Europe in Munich, the US thin-film manufacturer, which announced its deal with skytron energy at least year’s event, said the alliance had given the two companies a global platform in the increasingly important solar O&M market.
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Stefan Degener, First Solar’s senior director for O&M in Europe, said in addition to new plant construction, the secondary market in operational power plants was becoming a key driver of business in the O&M field, as new plant owners look to maximise the performance of their assets.
“The secondary market is a very active field in the European segment,” Degener said. “So you see plants changing ownership and the new owners particularly want to optimise the O&M for their fleet.
“In the past it was the case that a project was built by an EPC company and the banks asked for an O&M service agreement, which was then signed by the same EPC company providing O&M services. We see that many customers are not that much satisfied with the services they are receiving, or that these current O&M providers are not existing or capable to provide the services.
“The other thing is that optimisation of your plant can increase energy. And therefore you need a service provider who knows all the details, who can identify faults in your plant before they occur. And therefore they are seeking accountable O&M providers and change the service provider. The handover of a project in the secondary market is a very good reason for the new owner to terminate the old contract and go into a new one.”
With the acquisition of skytron, Degener said First Solar now had three operating centres around the world – one in its home state, Arizona, another in Australia and now one in Berlin.
Jörgen Klammer, managing director of skytron energy, said the two companies had “complementary” technologies, which together offered a “complete toolbox” of monitoring and grid integration controls.
Klammer said the basis of the technology was ‘skycontrol’, a PV power plant control system that “talks” to the grid operator and plant’s inverters and ensures grid stability by controlling the power fed into the grid at any time.
Meanwhile, skytron energy's PVGuard SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system operates as an interface between a plant and the control, allowing constant monitoring of the plant and the early detection of faults.
Degener said the ability to detect faults early meant plants were out of operation for less time, enhancing the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) generated by them.
“We do a lot of nightshifts to reduce plant downtime, and identifying any problem before it really happens helps to reduce downtime,” he explained. “That helps the customer produce more energy; on the other hand it helps us and the industry to continue the trend of reducing the LCOE of projects – because we want to become competitive as a renewable energy generator. And O&M needs to contribute towards that.”
