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Brooklands Farm

Herefordshire, June 2012


Overview

In April 2011 Southern Solar installed a solar PV system at Brooklands Farm, consisting of 1,600 solar panels covering 2000m2 of roof space. The system provides up to 60% of the farm’s electricity needs.

Following the first 12 months of systems monitoring, our client Roger Bowen wanted to ensure the continued optimal performance of his investment. Roger wanted longer-term peace of mind: to know that his warranty, finance and insurance requirements were covered and that a fault monitoring system would be in place.

 

"Contrary to popular belief, PV power plants are not maintenance free; they require a regimen of continual monitoring, periodic inspection, scheduled preventative maintenance, and service calls.”


Electric Power Research Institute

 

Our Solution

 

Servicing

 

Our service team are scheduled to make four visits per year, inspecting all five barn arrays, mechanical installation components, wiring, mounting systems, meters and communications equipment.

Facts

 

System: 290kWp

Area Covered:  2000m2

O&M Terms: 5 year contract

Maintenance

 

Through the analysis of our monitoring data we can recommend to the client when cleaning for his arrays is appropriate. This farm is particularly dusty and cleaning maximizes yields from the PV installation. Recommendations for replacement components are made as required.

 

Reporting

 

The system is continually monitored; serious faults are diagnosed within 24 hours, weekly data analysis is completed and a monthly report of basic trends compiled. The client receives a quarterly and annual report on PV generation.

 

Southern Solar put in place a five-year, rolling Operations and Maintenance Contract for Roger Bowen at Brooklands Farm. This is a complete operations, systems monitoring, servicing and maintenance agreement for the existing installation.

 

Monitoring

 

A Fronius DatCOM logging system was included in the initial PV installation; an additional wireless bridge was required as GSM signal is poor in the area. The collection of long-term performance data allows trends to be identified, to be detected immediately and rectified; improving returns. The Fronius Datalogger website provides a quick overview of the PV system and it has an automatic alarm that signals an SMS, email, fax or buzzer. At Southern Solar we analyse the daily data provided by the datalogger. Peak performance is maintained by acting on the results; ensuring the system settings are optimal and that all faults are diagnosed quickly and resolved promptly. Real-time PV system data and archived data can be easily accessed via the internet for our monitoring and servicing teams at the office or on site. A bank of historical data can guide engineers when responding to critical faults, improving up-time.

 

Southern Solar Operations and Maintenance Contract

 

A complete operations, systems monitoring, servicing and maintenance contract on your existing solar PV installation. This service is available for all installations, including: homeowners, asset or facilities managers, farmers, social landlords and utilities. We schedule the following for you in the five year arrangement:

 

 

  • Annual inspection of all accessible wiring, mounting systems, mechanical installation components, meters, sensors and communications.

 

  • Continuous web-based systems monitoring with serious fault diagnosis within 24 hours.

 

  • Access for you to the web portal data and alert emails.

 

  • Weekly analysis of data on web portal to identify any unexpected low generation.

 

  • Monthly report of basic trends and production analysis from monitored data.

 

 

We can also provide:

 

 

  • Array cleaning — in dusty or dirty environments such as farms regular cleaning has shown to increase annual solar energy production by 5—10%.

 

  • Site security.

 

  • Site management (eg. vegetation cutting to avoid shading).

 

  • Thermal imagery and scans.

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