Technical Risk Management during O&M of PV Plants
Manfred Bächler
Cologne
May 10th, 2016
Agenda
2
1
The stakeholders and their interests
2
Consolidation of the PV Value Chain
3
Specific Risk Areas
4
Technical Risk Assessment Criteria
5
Trends and Outlook
The Stakeholders and their (different) interests
Investor
EPC
Contrator
PV Plant
Bank/
Insurance
Company
3
O&M
Operator
The Stakeholders and their (different) interests
• Long Defect Warranty Period
Investor
• Performance guarantees
• Reasonable Low CAPEX
• Reasonable Low OPEX
• High Longterm Plant Performance (ideally
above prediction)
• Observance of all requirements from grid
Operator, legal permits, etc…
• 20years+ operation time
4
The Stakeholders and their (different) interests
Bank/
Insurance
Company
• Long Defect Warranty Period
• Reasonable Low CAPEX
• Reasonable Low OPEX
• High Longterm Plant Performance (in
worst case only slightly below prediction)
• 10-15 years financing period
… very similar to investor
5
The Stakeholders and their (different) interests
• Short Defect Warranty Period
EPC
Contrator
• Minimum of additional guarantees and
warranties
• High Sales Price (via low OPEX
– this affects O&M prices)
[1 €/kWp lower OPEX means 15€/kWp
higher sales price]
• 1 year construction, max. 5 years warranty
…different time horizon than investor
6
The Stakeholders and their (different) interests
O&M
Operator
• Long Defect Warranty Period (incl.
commissioning test at end of that
period!)
• Low Sales Price (to allow for higher
OPEX costs)
• Investors representative against
EPC, grid operator,
• Other service providers
• 20 years +
O&M Operator is one of the key players to manage all these
contradictonary requirements of different stakeholders for a long time
7
Consolidation (Development of O&M prices in Germany)
18
16
14
12
10
O&M Prices
8
6
4
2
0
2008
8
2010
2012
2015
Consolidation (Development of O&M prices in Germany)
Monitoring Tool
(incl. Transfer)
Monitoring &
Reporting
Trouble Shooting
Preventive
Maintenance
Site Keeping
MV Inspection
All – except for Monitoring Tool – very labour intensive.
Hard to reduce costs further.
9
Consequences of Consolidation/Price Pressure
• Walk away from „all inclusive“ contracts (no repair „flat rate, etc….)
• Price lists with minimum service level and extra packages
• Must have vs. Nice to have (BGV, DIN)
• Shorter duration of O&M contracts (no 20 years contracts with
fixed prices, etc…)
• Price pressure against subcontractors
• Existing O&M contracts are challenged (in case of transfer to other
contract partner)
• Spare parts management is becoming more complicated (original
supplier out of market, product discontinued)
• Size matters to benefit from economy of scale effects (weekend
stand-by, tools, etc…)
10
Specifc Risk Areas – Inverter Failures
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12
10
8
6
4
2
A total of 400 inverters were installed in 2012 in 6 plants
Almost 25% failure rate in 3 years – but slowing down with time
Specific problem of power electronics part in some production lots
Long replacement times (>6 weeks in summer) – own spare inverters?
11
oct JJ
sept JJ
août JJ
juil JJ
juin JJ
mai JJ
avr JJ
mars JJ
févr JJ
janv JJ
déc JJ
nov JJ
oct JJ
sept JJ
août JJ
juil JJ
juin JJ
mai JJ
avr JJ
mars JJ
févr JJ
janv JJ
déc JJ
nov JJ
oct JJ
sept JJ
août JJ
juil JJ
juin JJ
mai JJ
avr JJ
mars JJ
0
Specifc Risk Areas – Site Management
Picture: Phoenix Solar AG
Soil erosion due to unproper preparation of the PV site (at the
slope of a hill) before construction and lack of vegetation
Immediate action required (appropriate drainage inside and outside
of the park)
12
Specifc Risk Areas – DC Cabling/Rodents
Picture: Phoenix Solar AG
Damaged isolation (DC cabling by rodents in mounting structure)
Immediate Action required since inverter was shut down due to
isolation fault
13
Specifc Risk Areas – DC Cabling/Rodents
Picture: reniva GmbH
Open or damaged cable conduits are an invitation for rodents to
move in (and water to suck in and stay….)
Action required to close the inlets (with fountain foam)
14
Specifc Risk Areas – High Currents (AC LV)
Picture: reniva GmbH
Fire in Medium Voltage Station
Very high associated costs (new station, energy losses due to long
lead item)
15
Specifc Risk Areas – Isolation fault due to fire fighting
Picture: reniva GmbH
Isolation faults due to water penetration at MV station and capillary
effects
Replacement of all affected cables
16
Specifc Risk Areas – Thefts
Picture: eon EGD, reniva GmbH
Inverters seems to become thefts best friends: Similar weight as a
module – but almost 10fold value and less breakage risk during
bumpy transport…
Higher loss due to disconneted arrays: 1 inverter == 100 modules
17
Technical Risk Assessment – Main Criteria
Performance Loss
Short Term (Break
Down)
Level
Reaction Time
Total Plant or MV
Station Shut Down
Immediate
<3%
24/48h
<1%
Next inspection
interval
PID
tbd
Soiling
tbd
Long Term
(Degradation)
18
Technical Risk Assessment – Main Criteria
Issue
Risk
Action
Personal Safety
Electrical Shock
Immediate
Damaged component Performance Loss,
(but still operational)
Subsequent Failures
tbd
Long term integrity of
PV plant
Collapse of
structures, UV
Protection, etc…
tbd
Theft
Loss of property
Immediate, tbd
Permissions (legal,
grid operator, land
lord, etc…)
Loss of operating
permission,
permanent
19
Technical Risk Assessment – Review Steps
• PV Park is new in the portfolio (documentation, historical data,
fingerprint data, initial risk assessment)
• Preventive maintenance report (w/o wear and tear issues)
• Corrective maintenance report
• Fault diagnostics and ticket system of monitoring system
• Any relevant information from market about product problems
(suppliers, product recalls (!), customers, competitors, blogs, etc…)
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Trends and Challenges for the Future
• Spare parts management is becoming more complex with ongoing
consolidation on supplier side but also legal aspects (replacement of
broken/stolen modules (EEG) & inverters (BDEW certification)
• Size matters to benefit from economy of scale effects (weekend standby, tools, new technical challenges in long-term operation, fulfilment of
all legal & grid requirements , etc…)
• Consolidation in O&M segment (take over of O&M portfolios with
unknown quality, migration of historical data, etc..)) will continue with
more competition (cost effectiveness)
• More automization is needed to reduce labour intensive routine work
(data trend analysis, robots & drones, etc…)
• Supervision of O&M (if identical to EPC)
21
Site Management Risk – Mother Nature….
..but this should be manageable 
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