The photovoltaic solar industry continues to adopt tracker systems for increased energy yields and higher power output, and Solar Operations Solutions (Solar-Ops) has released new software for operations and maintenance (O&M) of the technology.
myPV IQ by Solar Operations Solutions
Solar-Ops’ myPV IQ software, a monitoring and control solution for utility-scale PV solar and energy storage facilities, includes tools to visualize ganged and independent tracker rows for asset management and maintenance capabilities. Trackers introduce multiple mechanical and electrical features no found in fixed-tilt solar. If left unattended, shortfalls in production can accumulate, which can create significant production losses over time.
Owner’s Agent Mike Whitson with PowerOn Energy Consultants contacted Solar-Ops with an operational visibility and control requirement in a new tracker system. DC homeruns routed near the edge of the array’s solar modules, any tracker actuation failure would cause mechanically linked rows to electrically tear apart.
myPV IQ’s real-time visualizations directed PowerOn Energy’s commissioning staff to specific equipment failures in real time. myPV IQ is also configured to automatically respond to tracker faults and prevent damage to mechanically linked rows.
“With myPV IQ, our team quickly identified and resolved issues, thus removing barriers to commercial operation and accelerating our capacity testing. During the system qualification, we were able to easily monitor the trackers to ensure they were operating properly and reset faults as they occurred remotely,” Whitson said.
myPV IQ can be deployed as a full SCADA system to monitor and control all connected equipment on site. It can also be installed as retrofitted tracker-only monitoring and control solution and has remote tracker control.
News item from Solar Operations Solutions
I’m just sayin’, the more complex, the more problems. For instance one can, orient array strings, North and South, and actually ‘tent’ arrays tilted East and West, get (almost) the same solar PV harvest without the mechanical failure as part of the system O&M. In the Northeast U.S. I can see a need to put solar PV panels on a tracking system. In the Southwest, not so much. As energy storage systems come down in price, or go up in energy storage capability for the same price, it will be more useful for the adopters to make their installations more robust with less mechanicals and move more towards overgeneration, time shifting and grid agnostic system designs.