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German Jordanian University

Supervisor: Exchange officer at GJU:

Mr. Roger Zetzmann Mrs. Stefanie Luniak

Team leader of the Control room Office for Industrial Links

r.zetzmann@skytron-energy.com Stefanie.luniak@gju.edu.jo

Date: Date:

Signature and stamp: Signature and stamp:

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Index Preface: ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Company Address: ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Overview about Skytron Energy: ................................................................................................................................. 5

Monitoring & Data Analysis: ........................................................................................................................................ 6

Module Performance ................................................................................................................................................... 7

String Level Degradation: ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Plant Performance: .................................................................................................................................................. 7

How monitoring can improve effectiveness of predictive maintenance: ............................................................ 8

O&M ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

INTERNSHIP OBJECTVIES .............................................................................................................................................. 9

A typical working day: ........................................................................................................................................ 10

The level of Mentoring: .............................................................................................................................................. 10

Typical working day & tasks in my internship at Skytron: ......................................................................................... 11

Control room team will informed detect and analyses all: ................................................................................... 11

Programs & Software’s: ............................................................................................................................................. 14

1-PV_Guard ............................................................................................................................................................ 14

2-CVIMManager ..................................................................................................................................................... 15

3-OTRS .................................................................................................................................................................... 15

4-Putty-tool ............................................................................................................................................................ 16

Skytron System Components: .................................................................................................................................... 17

PV Guard®: ......................................................................................................................................................... 17

Sky-control: ........................................................................................................................................................ 17

Sky Log ................................................................................................................................................................ 18

Array Guard ........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Product Features ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Sky Conni-Sun ..................................................................................................................................................... 20

Opinion: ...................................................................................................................................................................... 21

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE INTERNSHIP COMPANY ........................................................................................... 22

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Preface:

Currently I'm completing a Bachelor's degree in Energy Engineering

and at BTU Cottbus I'm a 4th year student at German-Jordanian

University.

Therefore I have to conduct a 6 months internship in Deutschland.

The reason I choose to do my internship abroad not only because of

the University Requirements. I wanted also to benefit from the

experience which I gain during the internship with Skytron family.

I did my Internship in Jordan with one of the Leading Companies in

the Photovoltaic world; I did the Internship with Second Energy.

Therefore I wanted to do my internship abroad to gain more

experience in the international Photovoltaic market, to learn more and

also to improve more sets of skills.

I was assigned to the Operation and maintenance department,

Operations department, as a software development engineer and this

helped me interact with different people, clients and this helped me

acquire information and gain different benefits. I gained knowledge

on how to control errors, Alerts and alarms of large scale PV power

plants. In conclusion, this was an opportunity to develop and enhance

skills and competencies in my career field which I actually achieved.

In this report I will describe my experiences which I gain during my

internship period. The internship report contains an overview about

the internship company and the activities, tasks and projects that I

have worked on during my internship. I also will describe and reflect

my learning objects and personal goals that I have set during my

internship period.

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Company Address:

skytron® energy GmbH / Ernst-Augustin-Straße 15

12489 Berlin / Germany / T +49 30 338 430 0 / F +49 30 338 430 99

Sitz Berlin / Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg / HRB 163298B / DE 295 424 299

Figure 1:Adlershof

Adlershof:

On the southwestern side of Adlershof now is built the new City of Science, Technology and Media (WISTA).

The local management seeks to establish the word "Adlershof" as a synonym for WISTA, ignoring the

traditional center of Adlershof.

A part of the area known today as the "City of Science, Technology and Media", was once known as

the Johannisthal Air Field. Germany's first motorized aircraft took off from here at the beginning of the 20th

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century.Albatros, Fokker, Rumpler and Wright made Adlershof-Johannisthal famous. In 1912 the German

Experimental Institute for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt – DVL) made Adlershof its

headquarters. Laboratories, motor test beds, wind tunnels and hangars were erected in the 20s and 30s and

are historical landmarks today.

*For this opportunity I want to thank Skytron team in general and special thanks for the people

which I directly deal with them and I asked them a lot of questions during my internship period, all

the team was really helpful and friendly colleagues:

1- I will start from the internship Interview: I did a lot of interviews in my life in big

and small companies. My experience with TEL Interview was the best experience

ever in my life, the easiest and the most comfortable interview I did in my life. So I

want here to thank in the first place the most humble, friendly Manager – Leader I

ever met in my life: Mr. Hendrik Hoffmann Director Software, Service and O&M.

I want to thank also Mr. Christoph Neufink my supervisor in the Service

department for his efforts and questions during my Interview.

2- My first steps in the company were in Control room (operation center). As an

Energy student this department was giving me the ability to learn more about

controlling large scale power plants, which is completely new interesting field of

work for me. During my internship I was blessed to work with an incredible

helpful cooperative team, I would like to take opportunity to thank each and every

one of them. MR. Roger Zetzmann, MR. Benjamin Winkler, MR. Adonis El Hajj,

Who always had the inquiry to support me and help me under any situation.

3- Last but not least I would like to thank my colleagues in the Back office, MR.

Lukas Hüffmeier, MR. Felix Noack.

Who always answered tons of questions and solved a lot of problems for me and my

team in the control room.

Overview about Skytron Energy:

The merger of skytron® energy with Wuseltronik, a 1977 spin-off of Berlin Technical University, has

evolved into three decades of unique expertise in the use of solar energy. It's not without reason

that we pride ourselves in being "pioneers of energy".

Pioneering spirit, continuity and long-standing experience, all combined with our vision for

trendsetting power plant technology – this was and is our motivating force and has driven the

development of our integrated monitoring and control system for photovoltaic power plants.

To date, more than 5 GWp of solar power generation installed worldwide relies on our monitoring

and control solutions.

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Figure 2: Skytron history

Monitoring & Data Analysis:

6 GWp worldwide relies on skytron® energy

CANADA 116.3 MWp UNITED KINGDOM

391 MWp

FRANCE 371.6 MWp

SPAIN 82.7 MWp

ITALY 310 MWp

SLOVAKIA 2 MWp

GREECE 8.1 MWp

UKRAINE 759.7 MWp

CZECH REPUBLIC 71.1 MWp

GERMANY 2 770 MWp

BELGIUM 11.9 MWp

THAILAND 18.1 MWp BULGARIA

8.2 MWp

TONGA 1 MWp CHILE

32.3 MWp

QATAR 0.7 MWp

ROMANIA 171.6 MWp

MALAYSIA 5.4 MWp

KUWAIT 0.117 MWp

AUSTRALIA 0.13 MWp

URUGUAY 1.8 MWp

SAUDI ARABIA 0.15 MWp

MAURITIUS 15 MWp

USA 500 MWp

INDIA 307 MWp

RUSSIA 1 MWp

ISRAEL 5 MWp

BELARUS 3.8 MWp

JAPAN 5.4 MWp

JORDANIA 1 MWp

Figure 3: Skytron Project around the world

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Untapped opportunities for learning from long term data

Module Performance

String Level Degradation:

› Self-learning algorithm

› Initial Degradation Ratio

› Annual Rate of Degradation

› Rising accuracy: 99,5% after 12 month

› Nameplate Power Tolerance

Figure 4: Power Plant Performance Figure 5: Efficiency tolerance

Plant Performance:

› Inverter Power Losses

› Plant Power Curtailments

› Balance Of System Efficiency

› Effective Availability

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Figure 6 :E𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦

How monitoring can improve effectiveness of predictive maintenance:

Fans (inverter or statcom stations, or housing for onsite controller)

› Operating hours counter

Set an alarm for max. hours and exchange the part just in time

Inverter

› Failures in MPP Tracking

› PR deviation

Transformer

› Temperature & Pressure

Shunt reactor

› Set counter and alarm for switching operations

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O&M

› The monitoring system should be chosen by investor or O&M operator & not

by the EPC.

› Long term contracts (e.g. inverter service, monitoring) should be made

directly between SPV and supplier.

› If a park is built with low-budget components, an advanced monitoring

system is needed.

› It is possible to give an availability guaranty even as a 3rd party O&M

without uncontrollable risk for the O&M and transparency for the investor

INTERNSHIP OBJECTVIES

1- The reason I choose to do my internship in such an international company like Skytron is

because I wanted to benefit from the experience. I wanted a new challenge and to learn,

improve and develop my skills Regarding PV power plants in general and to learn more

about the inverters, Inverters types and capacities, Measurements, Installation, Maintenance.

One of the main components also the Combiner box’s and the string guards, Of course not to forget about the

PV modules and the transformers, All of these components mentioned above I have been given the privilege to

control and report their failures and their maintenance on a daily basis.

2- Learn new skills which will help me to understand the Logistics Industry from different points in different countries , also my goal was to develop my skills which I gained and improved it in different time periods during my Academic and my field experience.

3- Get Constructive Feedback about my performance and how I worked on myself to improve my experience in my major and even in my personal life skills. Take in Comments, Suggestion, recommendations and critiques and learn as much as I can,

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from each one in the company, and this will help me to improve myself and to be more professional and also it will increase my performance now and also in the future.

4- Make new Contacts one of the main reason for my internship, it’s the most important place to

start building a professional network, and to know how the people from different cultures

think and react, from my experience in Skytron and also before that according to my

experience in Second Energy, the Best way to make and create new contacts is to be always

honest and to deal seriously with all kinds of tasks no Matter how easy or hard was it you

have to take it serious. And in the first weeks from my internship I was focusing to know the

people in my team more and more and to learn how they think and how they work under

pressure it’s good to understand the people which I will work with them in the future and I

will deal with them everyone with his-her Level.

A typical working day:

The German Working Time Regulations (“Arbeitszeitgesetz”) regulate working hours on a

legal basis. They are based on the European regulation 93/104/EG. In

The level of Mentoring:

The level of support by Skytron was outstanding. They gave me interesting tasks, they asked

me always for my opinion, and we exchanged ideas and discussed matters not only about

technical related issues but also about private matters on a regular basis. I learned a lot from

them because, though I worked independently, I always got support from my colleagues as

well as from my supervisor when needed. Moreover, I could be creative which motivated to

work hard, too. If problems in my work occur, all colleagues are very helpful. It is worth

mentioning that my relations to colleagues and superiors were always very friendly and

helpful. The atmosphere in my department was very good. I was able to work together with

very friendly colleagues which also helped the fun factor to be high besides the work. I had

the chance to gain a lot of fruitful experiences from their way of solving the problems. One

has to get used to the “Berliner” pronunciation of the German language, as they sometimes

talk very fast and produce sounds differently in their accent. But it is only a matter of time

and one get used to their accent and they were very helpful when I did not understand

something, they had repeated it with standard German. In general, there is a very friendly

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tone of communication among the colleagues and the team was very pleasant and helpful.

They made me feel like an employee at my country.

Typical working day & tasks in my internship at Skytron:

I. Plant data storage and maintenance throughout the entire service life of the plant

II. Continuous condition monitoring of all power plant components

III. Detection and evaluation of reverse string currents

IV. Detection of inverter failure and reduced string yields

V. Immediate reaction to fault indications: notification of on-site service team

VI. Management and forwarding of diagnostics messages

VII. Remote service and maintenance of skytron components (e.g., firmware updates, ...)

VIII. Regular reporting according to customer specification

Figure 7: Control room

As being a part of the control room team my daily working day would consist on five main

factors

Control room team will informed detect and analyses all:

a. Errors Error-Settings:

- Inverter state:

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- it‘s useful to enable the „inverter AC power output“ check. It rarely happens that an

inverters goes down w/o any entry in the fault trace. This check compares all

inverters with each other. If one inverter supplies more than XX % (adjustable) of his

nominal power and the checked inverter supplies no power an error occurs.

- String current deviation:

- should be divided for the stations with or w/o shading

- Min sun-elevation should be defined

- For the shaded stations a definition of the sun position is useful

b. Alerts

c. Alarms

and will inform the O&M operator within

• 2 hours in the case of an inverter or network malfunction or

• 6 hours in the case of a low priority faults

2. Control room hours are 7 days a week:

a. 9am to 5pm in Winter

b. 7am to 7pm in Summer

3. Documentation

All failures are recorded, documented and archived

4. Control room team will provide monthly / quarterly / annual reports

with the following analysis:

a- Performance ratio of plant and by inverter unit in per cent

b- Normalised yield of plant and by inverter unit in kWh/kWp

(incl. the normalised yield rate showing the relation between the generated

electricity and the nominal installed capacity

c- Comparison between yield and yield forecast in kWh/kWp

d- Yield losses of single units or the plant by the comparison between the

actual yield and the forecast yield calculated by interpolation of irradiation

and installed capacity. (e.g., due to component failures

or load reduction/management of the local utility company)

e- Comparison of plant performance to previous years

(with regard to yield, expected yield, ageing and other factors)

f- Fault documentation (listing of all faults and Downtimes)

g- List of service work performed (if provided by O&M operator)

h- Downtimes (output lost) Lost output determined by interpolating

radiation data with the PV system performance specifically possible

5. PV-Guard licence

The control room contract includes the software licence for our monitoring tool,

the PV-Guard

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Figure 8: operation center

Other asked tasks during my internship

Working on project with a physics professor in order to develop a Backup system for the

power plants we monitor or the power plants that is using our software PV- Guard, This

mission was completed within a 20 Working days. It was an eye opening project for me

because it made me realize the amount of importance for a Backup system in any power

plant in the world.

Figure 9: IB-Tool/Backup

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Also as Skytron being a part from the mother company First Solar, I had to complete

some of their online courses like

i. Working Ethics

ii. Scope of Authority

iii. Solar Fundamentals

To achieve a better and higher understanding of the company regulation and the

fundamentals of the Photovoltaic business not only in Germany but all over the worl

Programs & Software’s:

Some of the Programs and software’s that I have dealt with during my internship

1-PV_Guard a- Efficient tool to remotely control and maintain PV power plants as well as to

remotely Handle service activities

b- Reconfigurable views of the plant with different detail resolution c- Automatic check for error conditions. The error conditions can be configured. d- High data density (time resolution: 1 min) for exact error evaluation e- Automatic email notification f- Unified integration of solar plants: data of several PV power plants can be

compared. g- Simple data export to MS Office applications h- Zoom functions in views and diagrams i- Min.-max. function for analysis, error log for error statistics and trouble shooting

Figure 10: PV Guard Presentation

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2-CVIMManager

CVIMManager is able to read all values from a CVIM device and configure all a device‘s parameters These are, for example: • Communications parameters such as node addresses, Bit rate, etc. • Module configuration • Transmit flags • Names such as module names, names of measurement values, etc. • Parameters such as calibration values, measurement periods, etc.

Figure 11: CVIMManger

3-OTRS

OTRS Help Desk (OTRS) is a web application that is installed on a web server and can be used with a web browser. OTRS is separated into several components. The basic component is the OTRS framework which contains all central functions for the application and the ticket system. Through the web interface of the OTRS framework, it is possible to install additional applications such as ITSM modules, integrations with Network Monitoring solutions, a knowledge base (FAQ), et cetera.

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Figure 12: OTRS Tickets

4-Putty-tool

Putty-tool is private software Skytron uses to establish a direct connection with components on

site via satellite.

Figure 13: Putty-Tool

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Skytron System Components:

Figure 14: Skytron Components pyramid

PV Guard®: is our tool to help you with the remote monitoring and maintenance of your PV

system. Specially designed for PV plants in the megawatt range, PVGuard® provides you with fast

access to the operating data you need.

With its graphic depiction of detailed status information - down to string level - and comprehensive

alarm management including automatic messaging, PVGuard® provides you with the information

and incident control mechanism you need to effectively supervise your plants.

Sky-control: sky-control is an integrated system for PV power plant control and grid stability

management. It meets grid operators' requirements for utility-scale PV installations to ensure

controlled grid injection, both at the medium and high voltage level, and can be flexibly adjusted to

comply with different regional and international grid codes.

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Its unique feature, the genuine closed-loop control principle, ensures high-precision measurement of

all relevant physical quantities at the grid connection point and their continuous feedback to the

controller input. Combined with adaptable control algorithms and communication sequences, this

Closed control loop makes sky control a highly efficient tool for fast and stable power plant control,

even in large scale and distributed PV installations comprising several independent PV sections.

Figure 15: Sky Control cabinet

Sky Log: skylog® has been designed for data logging in large-scale photovoltaic power plants.

Just like any other member of the skylog® data logger series, skylog® records all measurement

values collected in the plant, and can be employed in conjunction with almost any inverter type

offered in today's solar market.The compiled and continuously updated database can be accessed

on site, using a standard USB computer interface, or passed on to a third-party evaluation platform

using a router.

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Figure 16: Sky log cabinet

Array Guard: n its design the ArrayGuard® FH is identical to our ArrayGuard® - however the FH

model provides additional protection of every individual PV generator string. Up to 24 strings can be

protected on positive, or on positive and negative poles.

Product Features

Combines up to 24 PV generator strings

Detects failures and decreased yields early

Several strings connected to one measurement channel

Highly precise and widely temperature independent values acquired

by Shunt measurement:

o string currents (eight measurement channels)

o system voltage

o internal cabinet temperature

Data transfer to local data logger via CAN fieldbus

Fuses on each single PV string

Options of fuse protection:

o String fuses on PV+(typeP) or

o String fuses on PV+ and PV- (typePM)

Fuse holders for easy-to-handle fuse replacement

Connection of PV string cables by push-in-type through terminals

DC main cable screw connection, no cable lug required

Integrated DC overvoltage protector with monitored status signalling contact

Integrated DC main switch with monitored status signalling contact

No external power supply required, power is supplied through the data bus

Reliable throughout a long outdoor lifetime

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Figure 17: Array Guard cabinet

Sky Conni-Sun: Our universal system for the measurement of ambient conditions. skyCONNi-Sun

is capable of integrating a number of different weather sensors into the plant communication

network. The basic system offers integrated ambient and module temperature sensors as well as

two interfaces for the connection of irradiation sensors, be it pyranometers or reference cells.

A compact weather station providing information about wind, precipi- tation and humidity conditions

can also be connected. The skyCONNi- Sun cabinet is of robust design and suitable for outdoor

installation.

Figure 18: Sky Conni-Sun

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Opinion: An internship is an opportunity to get hands-on experience with an employer in my professional field of interest. Internships are typically completed as part of college coursework. While my university has specific requirements for what we should experience during the intern process, we can establish our own personal and professional objectives for what we want to take away from the experience. Internships should be considered for anyone who wants more experience in an area that interests them. The knowledge that I personally gained from my internship has been very valuable, and I will be able to use the experiences that I had throughout my career and life. I really appreciate that I was given the autonomy to be creative, and to make decisions. My Internship supervisor provided me with this autonomy.

The one thing that anyone can do before they go into their internship is to go into the experience with an open mind, and be willing to have new experiences. Working in PV companies is really about thinking outside of the box, and being willing to try something different. My last recommendation for anyone doing in an internship is to make sure that you put in as much as you can into the internship. The more you put in the more you will get out of the experience. I have really enjoyed my internship experience. The goals that I set for this experience, I was able to reach. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I gained personally from this experience. I had a great site supervisor that made my internship experience better than I could have imagined. Since completing my hours I now feel confident in my abilities to work in the college union no matter what area that I end up in.

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE INTERNSHIP COMPANY Skytron is a great learning company for interns. Skytron is a big company and helps interns to improve and develop their skills. I would recommend Skytron to keep hiring interns with different educational background, to help build and improve the company with the knowledge which they will gain from the students. Actually, it was a great pleasure to me that I have met such a great and nice friends like them, they were very helpful and I have never felt homesickness there, because really they were like my family. I will always appreciate these moments and the chance that let me knew these great friends. And sure I highly recommend other GJU students to apply for working at Skytron Energy.