Solar Energy

Tata Consulting engineers with decades of domain expertise in plant engineering has leveraged artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to develop a digital point solution for solar photovoltaic plant performance monitoring and diagnosis. This ingenious tool can help plants improve their profitability. Let us have a look at current trends in solar energy sector and its operations and maintenance framework, challenges in solar photovoltaic plant operation, and finally we will look at the features and benefits of our innovative tool. As we know, solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on the earth. As per Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the International Energy Agency, the current installed installed capacity of solar PV plants in India is about 35 gigawatts, while globally the capacity is more than 700 gigawatts. The growth in capacity is expected to increase exponentially over the coming years. We need to focus more on reliability and performance of solar PV plants over its lifetime. Solar PV plant operation and maintenance and its monitoring approach are evolving continuously over time. Conventionally, the actual generation is compared to the estimated generation, and if the difference is less, a smooth operation of the plant is indicated. This conventional approach is less accurate and impacts plant operation, maintenance, and economics. Now let us look at some of the major challenges faced by solar PV plant operators. Providing accurate day-ahead energy prediction can be a challenge because of varying weather conditions. Minimizing energy losses caused by soiling and varied air pollution. The need for high-level asset monitoring. Absence of predictive maintenance approach. Reduction in operations and maintenance cost. Now let us look at the Solar PV Plant Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis Tool, its function and features, and how it will address these challenges. With vast domain expertise in renewable power sector, TCE has developed a real-time digital point solution that can help the operator optimize solar PV performance. The digital point solution can provide real-time monitoring of plant KPIs. The tool will help the operator to predict day-ahead generation more accurately. The tool can optimize the panel cleaning cycle. The tool is also able to detect defaults, and it provides early warning alerts so that the operator can take appropriate actions. The recommendations from the DigitalPoint solution, along with the actions of the operator, will lead to optimum plant performance and better maintenance. The tool will help to increase energy yield. The tool will also help to improve plant performance. The tool reduces the operation and maintenance cost due to the reduction in resources required for cleaning and maintenance. The tool enables accurate prediction for daily generation. These features collectively can improve the reliability and availability of the plant, ultimately improving the plant profitability and allowing the operator to sell excess generated power in green term ahead market. Tata Consulting Engineers, your trusted partner for digital solutions. Stay tuned to this space to know more about our upcoming digital point solutions.