ACWA expects 2% power gains after Huawei monitoring installs

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
ACWA Power CEO Paddy Padmanathan (left), Yin Feijun, GM of FusionSolar Smart PV Global Sales, Huawei (centre) and Julio Torre Gutierrez, President & CEO of NOMAC. Source: Huawei/ACWA.

Independent power producer ACWA Power expects to see a 2% yield improvement following the installation of Huawei’s FusionSolar Smart PV Management System.

Following a contract signing at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, ACWA intends to retrofit the system to an existing plant that does not use Huawei inverters. If the trial runs as expected, ACWA “fully intends” to roll it out across its ever-expanding solar PV portfolio.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

“It automates and digitalises a PV plant with the aim of helping developers to optimise the efficiency of their O&M,” said Paul Pan, general manager of Huawei’s solar business in the Middle East and Africa. “They save cost on their O&M and can also improve the efficiency of the plant.”

Garuda Prakash, director of O&M for ACWA Power told PV Tech the system would partially automate their maintenance.

“Overall energy production will increase by around 2% by improving the efficiency of how we manage the site,” he said.

“If one module has reduced efficiency, we can compare it to what we expect from that panel. It could be a problem from shadowing, or dust or bird droppings, we can identify the exact module that is causing the problem and send an alarm to the technician. We will always be watching. This would be extremely challenging and labour intensive to find otherwise.”

The system also aggregates the shared experiences of ACWA’s technicians by logging both the problem and the solution. Prakash said this would usually rely on its staff, and those of its O&M contractor Nomac, sharing all of their experiences.

“With this system, the alarm can automatically alert a technician not just to the problem but the solution as well,” he added. “The people on-site will be semi-skilled, the skilled workers will be in our central hub in Dubai. We’re also considering a mirror control centre in Saudi Arabia,” said Prakash.

Security

Huawei’s Pan acknowledges that such systems raise security concerns but he is confident the firm’s telecommunications background gives it an advantage.

“Cybersecurity is a common concern across society. All our software is security tested in the toughest way possible in the industry. That’s a commitment we make. Energy is a sensitive industry and Huawei applies the same standards on these products as it does on its telecommunications products,” claimed Pan. “The system is designed to ensure that there are multiple redundancies at multiple locations to protect the data.

“The FusionSolar Smart PV Management System is installed on more than 30GW of plants. This is the first one in MENA. That figure is all the customers using the system in total but each customer owns their data, which is held privately. We’re just the technology supplier to support this,” said Pan.

Huawei signed a number of other agreements at WFES including a franchise contract with Abunayyan Trading in Saudi Arabia and signed certified supplier contracts with Knights Energy of Jordan, ECOsys and Phoenix of Lebanon, 1 TEC Investment of South Africa and Enersyscom of Egypt.

Read Next

August 26, 2025
ABO Energy has closed its first syndicated loan agreement worth €240 million (US$279.8 million) to develop and construct more wind, solar and storage project.
August 26, 2025
Jakson Engineers is investing over INR80 billion (US$912.5 million) to set up a 6GW integrated solar module, cell, and wafer plant.
August 22, 2025
Saudi developer ACWA Power has started commercial operations of a 2.7GW solar PV portfolio in its home country.
August 22, 2025
AEMO has predicted the NEM will see a steady rise in renewable energy generation capacity, reaching 229TWh by 2035.
August 21, 2025
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), through its renewable energy arm NTPC Green Energy, has commissioned 212.5MW of solar capacity at its 1.25GW Khavda-I project. 
August 20, 2025
Blueleaf Energy has signed an MoU with Chemsain Sustainability to explore a portfolio of up to 3GW of solar PV and BESS in Malaysia.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
October 2, 2025
London,UK
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines