As global leaders in solar monitoring, Solar-Log® team members met with solar installers across the U.S. to discuss their needs for solar plant monitoring and the key features most important to them and the success of their business. Solar-Log® reached hundreds of industry professionals, and across the board, heard the same four topics. From tools to increase revenue today, to ways to future-proof your business, we have put together this noteworthy list of the top 4 trends happening in the solar PV monitoring space right now.
1. Consumption Monitoring
Monitoring building energy usage is anything but a new topic for solar industry professionals and enthusiasts, but it seems to be gaining more popularity among these groups. We all know what it’s like to ride the solar coaster, with ever-changing incentives and new regulations for grid connection, but there are two themes that always remain constant; save money on electricity costs and contribute to the conservation of the environment. Monitoring energy usage is relevant in both, regardless of how lucrative (or not) the local net metering policy or feed-in tariff. Once a plant owner understands how their electricity is used, they can make adjustments to lower their costs.
The data collected from consumption monitoring will allow the end-user to adjust when they use their electricity, helping save on time-of-use charges. It makes it easier to identify energy-hungry appliances that are wasting electricity and resources. Solar companies have understood this concept for years, but it is just now becoming a hot topic, especially considering the recent changes in the tax policies surrounding and affecting the solar market. Optimizing the use of self-produced power is important and the first step is understanding how and when the electricity is being used.
2. Data Aggregation
Data aggregation is a very basic topic for solar plant monitoring, but interestingly enough it is also a hot topic. As the U.S. solar industry matures, installers, O&M providers, and PPAs are now handling huge fleets, which often includes a mixed bag of residential, commercial, and even industrial-size plants. Monitoring and managing these projects has become an immense, time-consuming task as the fleet manager is now having to monitor their plants from several different software portals. Companies are now looking for inverter agnostic tools to aggregate the data from across their entire fleet. Although inverter agnostic hardware exists, companies are also looking for hardware-free solutions to consolidate monitoring at a low price-point.
Explore inverter agnostic Solar-Log® Solutions
3. Battery Storage Monitoring
Battery storage has been the hot topic of discussion for the past couple of years in the solar industry. There’s little doubt that battery storage is coming and will likely be a basic staple of the solar array in the future, but it’s not here yet. Companies that are planning ahead are asking about battery storage from a fleet management side because just like inverters, batteries need performance monitoring. Solar-Log® has spoken with several companies recently who are looking to establish a monitoring protocol that takes in to account battery storage, with the idea that establishing this system now will help them be prepared when battery storage does take wide-spread hold in the market.
4. Error Messages
The fourth biggest trend we are seeing is not actually an increase in error messages from growing fleets, but frustration with them. Not that long ago, performance error messages were basic and blanketed. Now, monitoring portals provide an excess of data points ranging from detecting inverter errors, installation errors, and configuration errors, to providing advanced integrated yield forecasting information. Unfortunately, although incredibly valuable information, these tools also mean an increase in error messages. Combine that with a growing fleet, and an installer can find themselves under the weight of thousands of error messages to go through and analyze.
Luckily, as monitoring platforms have matured, there are now ways to customize and better define what generates an error message in the monitoring portal. Perhaps the fleet manager doesn’t need to know about a 10% deviation between expected power and actual output, but a 20% deviation needs to be addressed. Instead of shutting off error messages completely, the portal operator can customize which messages they want and how often. This will ensure they are still accurately and efficiently monitoring their plants for smooth operation, but without having to sift through an overwhelming amount of unnecessary notifications.
If you are looking for ways to better monitor your plants, streamline the process, and future-proof your solar business, please contact Solar-Log® and let us help you find the best monitoring solution for you. Our business is solar PV plant monitoring and our advanced monitoring portal is proof of how seriously we take our business.
