Perhaps the aspect of asset management most in need of automated solutions is data collection. There is a constant stream of information coming in from a dizzying variety of sources and keeping tabs on it is a thankless task. Sadly, while collecting and processing data might be a tedious chore, it is essential for optimising performance, whether that is operational or financial.
Data Collection Challenges for Renewable Energy investments
Overseeing solar projects means being aware of plant performance, from macro to component level. It means producing regular reports, to identify trends or emerging issues before they become a major problem. It means developing a detailed knowledge of revenue, to ensure accurate billing and financial reporting. Above all, it means being equipped with all the information you need to make smart management decisions.
Quintas Analytics provides solutions for many clients, all of whom have different priorities. However, every client with data collection issues faces the same two overall challenges:
- Volume and complexity of data. Even with small portfolios there is an immense amount of information to be collated – and so much of it from diverse sources, making integration far more difficult. Dealing with this mountain of data takes up a disproportionate amount of working time, distracting the management team from other important tasks.
- Imprecise and unreliable manual processing. Even with the most diligent worker, manually analysing data is time-consuming and prone to error. Discrepancies can be missed, and the bigger picture obscured due to the sheer amount of detail involved. The inefficiency of manual analysis also limits how frequently metrics such as technical KPIs and production losses can be calculated.
By resolving these issues, both portfolio owners and managers receive a significant boost. For the owner, they can be assured that their portfolio is functioning more efficiently and with improved revenues. For the asset manager, the benefits are manifold – from the freeing up of time which can be spent more productively on strategy and planning, rather than tedious manual number-crunching, to the greater precision and operational efficiency that automation brings.
Five examples of how Quintas Analytics’ automated solutions help overcome the Challenges of Manual Data Collection
Automated solutions take the pain and uncertainty out of these activities, as well as getting them done faster. Here are five concrete problems posed by the never-ending river of information, illustrated by real examples of Quintas Analytics automated solutions helping overcome challenges of manual data collection:
1. Optimising monthly reporting for photovoltaic portfolios
When administering significant PV portfolios, management teams must produce regular status reports incorporating technical and financial KPIs. With manual data collection monthly reporting can become a real problem, due to volume and complexity.
In this case, the AM team faced these typical challenges when trying to collate and analyse major data streams. Such work takes up a huge amount of time and mistakes are frequent. Automated solutions seamlessly integrate data and generate reports from it based on comparisons with established KPIs.
In our example, implementing our automated solution for a client with a portfolio of 50 assets greatly improved operational efficiency and decision making, as well as freeing up hours of time for the AM team to better focus on strategy and boosting asset performance.
2. Providing a daily homogeneous view of asset performance to improve management efficiency
Data collection becomes even more convoluted when it crosses national borders. AM teams face the challenge of reporting and analysing KPIs across countries, with the different international formats making their job very difficult.
Quintas Analytics’ automated solution cuts down the workload by standardising and integrating the data, as well as calculating availability, performance ratios and production losses, and generating daily reports. The result is clear – more effective and profitable management.
In this case, implementing the solution for a client with a diverse portfolio of 75 solar assets in three different countries helped them to improve operations and increase revenue, as well as spotting systemic problems much earlier.
3. Optimising revenue management for accurate revenue estimation
With a very large portfolio operating under a mixed PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) and market arrangement, the need for correct billing is paramount. Managers responsible for this need highly accurate data to estimate revenues and ensure contractual compliance – a challenge due to the high volume of data and complexity of the calculations involved.
In this situation, automated solutions eliminate the mountain of manual work required, optimise accuracy, and automatically file claims with the offtaker for production discrepancies.
In this example, the client, who owns a portfolio of 500 PV assets in Spain, gained a powerful administrative tool to increase profitability and operational efficiency in a diversified market, as well as helping the management team optimise its working time.
4. Analysing energy sales strategy for a hybrid storage portfolio to maximise revenue
With energy storage involved, maximising income depends on knowing when best to charge batteries and when to sell their stored energy. Difficulties here stem from manually analysing loading, unloading, price and market data, while also trying to optimise loading and sales strategies.
Quintas Analytics’ automated solution combines speed, efficiency, and flexibility, with daily calculations of battery charge and optimal charging/discharging period, estimating revenues from this. It also comparatively analyses the sales strategy.
Our client owns five battery hybrid PV assets in the UK, and implementing our automated solution greatly improved profitability, as well us freeing up the AM team to formulate more efficient sales strategies.
5. Identifying and resolving communication issues to ensure accurate billing for a very large portfolio
An often-neglected issue concerning data collection is inefficient communication, which can cause nightmares for managers concerned with accurate billing. AMs for large portfolios face challenges stemming from a lack of standardisation among assets and the constant likelihood of technical problems.Manually processing all of this is a huge and difficult task, but automated solutions tackle the problem at source, giving different plants a standard communications protocol and creating a centralised, cloud-based data collection and monitoring platform, making reporting easier and intervention against deviations faster.
Our client, a leading Independent Power Producer (IPP), manages a portfolio of 1,000 PV plants under a regulated Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme – long-term contracts requiring consistently accurate output monitoring for reliable billing. Quintas Analytics’ automated solution not only fixed data availability, revenue provision, operational efficiency, and profitability issues, it also enabled new assets to be added to the portfolio at no additional cost.
Are you ready to try our automated solutions?
These real-life cases all demonstrate how transformational smart automated solutions can be when it comes to cutting vast swathes of unnecessary hassle out of an asset manager’s working day. More than that, these solutions strengthen and magnify operational efficiency, while working constantly to maximise revenues. With the flexibility required to fit all types of portfolios and address any type of issue, it is rapidly becoming clear that this technology is fast becoming an indispensable part of modern solar PV asset management going forward.
Do you find yourself struggling with manual data collection? Discover how our automated solutions can help you.
