First Solar Operations & Maintenance

First Solar Operations & Maintenance,Zhang, Shaowei- GM of First Solar China YinChuan, Ningxia,O&M From The Owner’s Perspective,Solar asset owners want to MAXIMIZE their ROI, MITIGATE operational RISK and expect O&M service providers to ensure OPTIMAL ASSET PERFORMANCE.,Knowing if actual kWh produced = optimized kWh,Understanding the ‘real costs’ of solar asset ownership,Mitigating the risks of equipment failure and O&M bankruptcy,Key Messages:,O&M,O&M is not a commodity First Solar has invested in O&M to build a superior, sustainable, platform O&M is one of the core component of First Solar’s growth strategy Metrics matter and ultimately drive profitability of your power plants First Solar’s O&M customers’ are highly satisfied with existing projects and are actively soliciting new opportunities First Solar’s turnkey solutions, backed back our O&M, consistently exceed key metrics and ROI targets,First Solar O&M — World’s Largest Solar O&M Provider,The Number’s Matter,99.5%,99.7% (2012),99.5% (2014),99.4% (2013),FLEET AVERAGE – EFFECTIVE AVAILIBILITY,Energy Services – Capabilities and Products (Overview),● = Included in base price | ○ = Optional feature/service.,Operations,,Real-Time Performance Management,24x7 real-time plant monitoring Active power plant control Weather forecasting and energy predictions Contract Management & Compliance Performance reporting to utilities, owners and site personnel,CORE Competency — OPERATIONS Services,Fully integrated operations with automated controls ensure plant is operational and generating optimal energy production.,,,24x7 Operations Center,,Increased Availability 24/7 operations center creates notification/work order less than 5 minutes after the problem occurs.,Dispatchability and Grid Support 24/7 operations center provides active/reactive power control, power scheduling/forecasting, etc.,Improved Safety Operations center enforces lock-out tag-out and other maintenance safety protocols.,Information Transparency Asset owners get access to in-depth reports, service records, and real-time plant data.,NERC/WECC/ERCOT Compliance for Registered Facilities Operations center complies with NERC regulations , even for plant sizes 50 MW.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Benefit of Plant Level Control System,,Power,Block #,Output of Each Block,Plant Output Power,Increase in Power Limit,Potential Power,Plant Output Limit,Time,Power,Plant Output with inverter limit,Plant Output with central control,Variability Reduced,Power Curtailment at Different Levels,Source: Agua Caliente PV Plant in Yuma, Arizona, USA March 13, 2012. ~90MW on-line.,Plant Curtailment Test,Time in Minutes,Excellent Control over Active Power,Set Point Reduced,Set Point Increased,Ramp rates between set point changes are controlled,Inverters are Turned Down/ OFF to curtail output,,Performance Analytics,,What is Performance Engineering?,,Real world complications make it challenging Energy production influenced by external drivers: clouds, dust, temperature, humidity, soiling, outages, shading Finding needles in a very big haystack Plant data is imperfect: communications failures, sensor failures, miscalibrations,Performance Engineering is simply…,Maximized Energy,Maximized Energy,Plant Health Assurance,Analytics,Reporting,Example 1: Lost Energy Detection,First Solar proprietary algorithms identify generation issues down to the string level without string level monitoring Wiring issues, open fuses, broken modules Comprehensive failure information presented to engineer enables efficient validation and work order initiation,(+) Harness Cables,,,,(+) Harness Cables,,,,Example 2: Data Quality,Data quality is important,,Data quality achieved through technology Automated daily data review/recovery using First Solar Proprietary software Semi-Automated human data review weekly First Solar proprietary automated daily sensor validation tests Alert is provided to engineer along with focused information needed to choose a appropriate response,,Example 3: Forecasting System,Automated Forecasting Process,16 plants currently being forecast with First Solar’s state of the art system Hour ahead forecast achieves 90% Accuracy (10% mean absolute percentage error),,,Hour Ahead – 93% Accurate,Day Ahead – 85% Accurate,Work Management - Integration & Metrics,Sophisticated Integrated Work Management System,Organizational Transparency & System Integration Prioritization (Optimize Energy Yield) Standardization Task Based Procedures/Job Plans/Training/Documentation Scalability Decrease in Variation (Consistency) Meaningful Metrics/Continuous Improvement Accuracy/Precision,,CMMS,Planning and Scheduling Strategy,Skytron Energy,Who we are,04 SUPERVISORY LEVEL,PVGuard®,03 CONTROL LEVEL,EnergyGuard skycontrol,skylog®,01 SENSOR LEVEL,ArrayGuard® StringGuard® skyCONNi,02 DATA ACQUISITION LEVEL,Control room for remote plant supervision / Alarm handling and notification / Remote service management / Plant performance analysis / Monthly reporting / Comparison with yield assessment report,Closed-loop plant control / Network analysis with actual value feedback / Metering / Interfacing and protection / Flexible electricity trading, direct or tariff based,On-site logging of all plant, control and grid-injection data / Data preprocessing / Broadband data transmission to long-term data hosting / Condition monitoring,Field data measurement / String current -monitoring / String protection / Condition monitoring / DC distribution / Safety remote OFF,System Overview,Who we are,Our Offerings Portfolio To date 5 GWp of installed PV utility-scale plant worldwide 3 GWp of this: equipped with dynamic power plant control Field sensor equipment for ambient condition monitoring Combiner boxes with high-precision string current monitoring Plant data acquisition (data logging) Power plant control for grid stability Life-cycle data storage and data mining Remote plant supervision and control room Plant performance reporting & analysis System migration and retrofit of existing plants Project engineering Complete O & M services,Backups,First Solar O&M — SUPERIOR Technology,An investment in SUPERIOR technology To lower operating costs To maximize performance To yield high returns Experience in development and integration of state of the art technologies Instrumentation and controls Performance and statistical analysis Product development and business intelligence Compliance, reliability, safety, and security,,LOWERS OPERATING COST,First Solar O&M — SUPERIOR Technology - Maximizes Performance,Advanced technologies enable efficient asset management, and O&M services,,,PV plant controls and forecasting provide grid reliability and stability Real-time integration of PV plants to First Solar’s Operations Center Integration of field devices and work management tools provide maintenance crews the capabilities to efficiently maintain PV plants,First Solar O&M — SUPERIOR Technology - Yields Higher Returns,Advanced diagnostics and automated analysis provide: Maximum value of the system Delivery of predictive energy output The ability to scale PV performance engineering services,,Data,,Data Analysis,First Solar Performance Engineering,,Performance Engineering At First Solar,,Performance Engineering is…,Plant Health Assurance,Analytics,Reporting,Expertise,Optimized Plant Performance,Reduced Cost,Technology,Example 1: Lost Energy Detection,First Solar tools detect string level failures without the cost of string level instrumentation and field technicians.,,,26 Loss of Energy EVENTS,in 4 months,Forecasting Dashboard,,Actual Power,,Hour Ahead – 93% Accurate,,Day Ahead – 85% Accurate,,Periodic NOAA Satelite Images downloaded and processed,GHI predicted,POA transposed From GHI,Weather Forecast,,,Plant Model takes weather forecast POA as input and outputs MWH prediction,Energy Forecast,Forecast is adjusted for outages,,Automated delivery is scheduled by WECC calendar or other customer reqmts,Forecast Delivery,Forecast is delivered by FTP SFTP E-mail,,Delivery failures detected and remedied,GHI- Global Horizontal Irradiance (sunlight available) POA- Plane of Array Irradiance (sunlight available at module surface),Total System Solution,,Total System Solution — Center of Excellence,Planning/Scheduling (Execution) Computerized Maintenance Management System Metrics/Analytics Standards/Procedures Training Document Management Center of Excellence,,Compliant Program,Overview: Integrated Scheduling System,Integrated Scheduling System to schedule work orders in CMMS System (Schedule as a system, not as individual plants) Identify Resource Constraints between sites. Visibility/Transparency for all stakeholders,,Research and Development,First Solar O&M — SUPERIOR Technology – Future Advancements,Further technology advancements through execution of existing technology roadmaps, R&D and forming key partnerships.,Key Partnerships,Technology Roadmap,3rd Party PV Plant,First Solar FSOC & Performance Engineers,