Understanding mitigable losses is key to improving the revenue and production of your solar farm. And while many losses cannot be changed, losses related to the components of a solar farm can typically be reduced through optimization strategies.
Clir’s component detectors categorize lost energy by inverter, combiner and AC subsystem, allowing granularity to understand where energy is being lost on the PV farm.
By benchmarking these losses against industry peers, owners can understand how their solar farm components are performing compared to similar farms.
Clir's solar farm component detectors
Solar inverter
Clir’s inverter partial capability detector analyzes inverter data and creates partial capability unit statuses. These unit statuses identify when the inverter is performing less than expected and quantify the associated lost energy.
Solar combiner
The combiner detector analyzes combiner and inverter level data to detect inverter underperformance through combiner malfunctioning. Partial capability due to combiner issues is a source of major underperformance at solar projects. This type of loss can be used to benchmark combiner performance across a portfolio or technology type.
AC subsystem
The AC subsystem detector analyzes farm level data to detect site wide outages due to transformer or switchgear related issues. Site wide transformer outages, although less common than other loss types, are major sources of lost energy when they do happen. It is important to correctly categorize this lost energy to properly explain the cause of downtime.
Use cases: Optimization opportunities
Increasing performance
Our component detectors will tell you what components on the solar farm are impacting the performance of your assets, be it inverters, combiners or transformers. By pinpointing where issues are coming from, and gaining visibility, you can improve your understanding of why your farm is not meeting budget.
The inverter, combiner and AC subsystem detectors can provide transparency into why the farm is not meeting budget. Owners and asset managers can deploy resources towards investigating and mitigating underperformance in key areas of the solar farm to mitigate unexpected underperformance and improve the asset’s revenue.
Maintenance
Understanding losses associated with the various components on the PV farm can help owners understand when components are malfunctioning and maintenance needs to take place. By comparing the losses on a consistent basis against historical production, owners gain visibility into when the components begin to underperform and can efficiently address issues through scheduled maintenance.
Benchmarking component losses
With data on component losses, and the ability to benchmark losses against peers using Clir's 250 GW of data, owners can have a deeper understanding of how their components perform compared to industry standards. This can help them understand if the components are performing properly or if changes need to be made to maintenance schedules.
