Solar O&M providers need to better communicate to investors the value they are adding to projects through data management and digitalisation, according to an industry figure.
O&M firms need to “step into the shoes of investors” to prove how these new data tools have impacted plant performance and energy yields, Uwe Schmidt, director, O&M, IBC Solar, told PV Tech at Intersolar Europe in Munich.
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“Data management is getting more and more important. Not only saying you have been on the market for however many years, [it is] more based on your actions in the last year with the data in really productive operational topics.”
Whereas in previous eras O&M performance could be communicated via emails, now tools can gather information and send reports far more effectively and instantaneously, but it’s not always easy to explain to investors how a company’s O&M actions have translated into higher energy yields for the plant.
Schmidt added: “Investors are looking more at the quality side and quality is pretty hard to prove sometimes; you have to communicate; you have to prove what you really did.”
Thus the quality of documentation – not only the plant performance – has become important. Companies also need to calculate whether providing a seven-day-a-week service is effective cost-wise compared to just five days.
Schmidt added there is an ongoing debate in the industry about whether it is preferable to have an independent third-party O&M provider or not. Defending the non-independent option, he said that providing O&M services for your own products and EPC-serviced projects allows the O&M team to react quickly in regard to warranty issues and the team knows their own products inside out.
