PERSPECTIVE
WORLD-GENERATION MAY/JUNE 2015 V.27 #2
22
In the early days of the solar industry,
the focus was on getting solar photovoltaic
PV systems up and running. But now that
solar PV is entering the mainstream, the
focus is on getting the best financial
return. With the expansion in fleet sizes –
many owners and operators are running
fleets consisting of thousands of systems –
even small increases in performance, cost-
cutting measures and improvements in
operations and maintenance (O&M) func-
tions can translate to a big effect on the
bottom line.
Until recently, owners and operators of
fleets spread across wide geographical
areas have relied on inefficient in-house
asset management solutions due to the lack
of other options, but that is now changing
with the introduction of sophisticated fleet
management and analytics software that
provides them with clear, actionable data on
which to base O&M decisions. By collect-
ing and analyzing data from a wide range of
sources, solar analytics software provides
asset managers with insight into whether a
system is performing up to expectations
and the causes behind a system’s failure to
perform. The access to such intelligence
can boost energy output and save on O&M
costs, thus increasing return on investment.
Locus Energy’s cloud-based software
application, SolarNOC (Network Operation
Center), allows asset managers to collect,
organize and analyze performance data
from a diverse set of solar PV assets.
SolarNOC provides asset managers with an
unprecedented level of control over how
performance data is aggregated and dis-
played through filters that are accessed
from a customized dashboard. Fleets can
be managed across multiple dimensions by
installer, geographical region, system size,
equipment type, install date, finance part-
ner and many other criteria. For example, a
filter can be created that tracks all projects
in New Jersey with inverters from a specific
manufacturer that have been installed in
the last 60 days. Another strength of
SolarNOC is its ability to handle data from
a wide range of sources, including inverter
direct data, legacy monitoring systems and
third-party performance data sets.
But while SolarNOC lets asset manag-
ers know if a system isn’t performing up to
expectations, it doesn’t tell them why a sys-
tem isn’t performing up to expectations.
Which is where Locus’ PVIQ data analytics
suite comes in. PVIQ can be added to
SolarNOC or other fleet management soft-
ware platforms, providing additional layers
of system intelligence. PVIQ consists of
three elements. The first, the Virtual
Irradiance (VI) tool, draws on private and
public historical and real-time data from
weather stations, satellite imagery, federal
agencies such as NASA and NOAA and
other sources, to provide highly accurate,
ground-level irradiance data across an
install base or a geographic region on a
15-minute basis. When used with other
modeling data — i.e., the type of panel or
inverter — Locus’ VI tool provides asset
managers with a truly accurate assessment
of how much energy their systems should
be producing based on the amount of sun-
light that is hitting the ground at a specific
location. This “big data” tool functions in a
similar manner to the gauge on a gas pump:
Just as a driver needs to know how much
fuel goes into the tank in order to calculate
mileage, the VI tool, which measures the
“fuel” that goes into a solar PV system,
allows stakeholders to determine if a solar
PV system is performing as it should.
The use of VI also eliminates the need
for on-site sensors, which are cost-prohibi-
tive for small systems. In the case of sys-
tems where onsite sensors have already
been installed, VI validates sensor data,
which can become skewed due to factors
such as soiling or miscalibration.
The second element of PVIQ, the
Waterfall report, is unique in the industry.
The Waterfall report identifies the causes
behind a system’s failure to perform,
including factors such as weather uncer-
tainty, snow downtime, shading, equipment
downtime, equipment degradation and
inverter problems. The prescriptive analy-
sis provided by Waterfall enables a specific,
detailed understanding of which factors are
most affecting the performance of a solar
PV system and how the causes of the
underperformance can best be addressed.
Locus’ plug-in software, the third element
of PVIQ, provides direct access to Locus’
databases through an Excel spreadsheet,
dramatically reducing the time required to
prepare periodic performance reports.
An important feature of PVIQ is that its
open software platform allows it to be
integrated with any solar performance
dataset, including a customers’ own. It can
also be integrated with other types of
software, including O&M ticketing
software. Users can use PVIQ to identify
problems that lead to reduced
performance, then create maintenance
tickets through O&M software that defines
the most appropriate next steps, including
activities such as ordering and stocking
critical parts or tracking equipment repairs,
materials and labor costs. The integration
of PVIQ with O&M software enhances the
ability of asset managers to identify systems
that aren’t meeting performance
expectations and to streamline O&M
processes to improve workflow, minimize
ANALYTICS:THE KEYTO ACCELERATINGTHE ADOPTION OF SOLAR
BY MICHAEL HERZIG,FOUNDER AND CEO,LOCUS ENERGY
(continued page 26)
