RESOURCE GUIDE
Utility Solar Asset Management
and Operations and Maintenance
As large-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar projects
become an integral part of utility portfolios
across the country, managing these assets for
optimum performance—physical and financial—
has become a high priority for a range of
stakeholders. Specifically, the industry requires
more overlap of asset management (AM) and
operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities.
The fast-changing characteristics of solar and
a lack of consistent codes and standards,
measurement tools, and best practices are
disrupting current AM and O&M methods
developed for centralized, fossil fuel-powered
plants. Thus, as utilities become more engaged
in PV facility operation, through power-purchase
agreements (PPAs), direct procurement or project
acquisitions, they will need to identify which
specifications and best practices are transferable to
PV plants, and when new approaches are needed.
To provide AM and O&M specialists with a
basic understanding of solar asset management
challenges, the Solar Electric Power Association
(SEPA) partnered with the solar consulting firm
High Performance PV to create the Resource
Guide on Utility Solar Asset Management and
Operations and Maintenance. The guide is
focused on three key elements:
•
How utilities and the solar industry can move
toward an integrated approach to asset
management and O&M.
•
Why a holistic approach to asset management
and O&M can benefit utilities and the solar
industry.
•
A curated list of resources to help readers
start on the path toward integrated asset
management and O&M.
BACKGROUND
The integral relationship between AM and O&M,
especially for PV projects, is firmly grounded in
bottom line performance. An O&M budget for utilityscale PV, excluding system monitoring and major
equipment replacements (for example, panels), may
cost between $10 to $45 per kilowatt per year.1 For
a 10-megawatt (MW) plant, the potential 25-year
lifetime cost could run between $2.5 million and
$11.25 million. With nearly 16.4 gigawatts of solar
systems deployed in the United States through
2015, solar O&M represents a multimillion dollar
budget item for asset management.
This figure increases substantially with the addition
of equipment replacement and system monitoring
and controls, which are essential for ensuring longterm system performance.
Due to these high costs, a PV project overdesigned
for expected failures and environmental impacts
in the field (common current practice) may not
be preferable to a rightsized system with a wellplanned O&M strategy. Key issues associated with
oversizing are uncertainty in financial budgeting,
for AM, and performance instability, for O&M.
Though an oversized system may look good
for the first few years of a project, it may leave
less operating margin for necessary O&M. As
equipment ages without adequate O&M, long-term
performance becomes less predictable because
O&M managers never know when to replace parts
until failure occurs. If the system is rightsized with
little or no excess failure capacity, it would have a
stronger incentive to adhere to a better O&M plan
and budget, allowing for financial and performance
predictability for the life of project rather than only
the first few years.
1 EPRI, December 2015, “Budgeting for Solar PV Plan Operations & Maintenance: Practices and Pricing.”
ABOUT THE GUIDE
THE NEXT STEPS
The first half of the Resource Guide on Utility Solar
Asset Management and Operations and Maintenance
discusses the interdependency of AM and O&M,
and explains why plant conditions and long-term
operational health should be addressed at project
concept and specification. The guide also outlines
solar AM and O&M issues specific to utility-scale
projects, including:
The Resource Guide on Utility Solar Asset
Management and Operations and Maintenance is
part of a broader utility solar asset management
initiative that SEPA has undertaken to help utility
managers address cost control, risk and reliability
through preemptive activities, such as identifying and
hedging inherent project risks. SEPA is committed to
building on existing research and examining ways to
support development of innovative deliverables that
solve important unmet asset management needs.
•
The steep industry learning curve and resulting
contractual challenges causing cost overruns.
•
Lack of standard definitions and terminology,
resulting in unnecessary financial and technical
challenges.
•
Challenges relating to data and documentation
sharing among equipment manufacturers,
system designers, and operators, leading to
lower awareness of system reliability variables.
•
Lack of standardized measurement tools to
accurately determine PV plant health.
•
Performance expectation issues resulting in
unrealistic contractual requirements.
Part of this effort involves creating tools, such as
this resource guide, to bring lessons learned from
existing PV facilities to key stakeholders. SEPA
is forming a utility working group and planning
additional webinars and other educational events.
For more information, contact Daisy
Chung, dchung@solarelectricpower.org.
The last half of the guide outlines and includes
resources to address factors such as hardware,
build design and environment, and performance
management and optimization. The resource list
is intended to provide utility PV professionals a
starting point for exploring existing published
materials. These resources include relevant and new
information necessary to improve project reliability,
availability and maintainability (RAM) for new and
existing plants.
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