Technical Risk Management during O&M of PV Plants

Manfred Bächler

Cologne

May 10th, 2016

Agenda

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The stakeholders and their interests

Consolidation of the PV Value Chain

Specific Risk Areas

Technical Risk Assessment Criteria

Trends and Outlook

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5

The Stakeholders and their (different) interests

3

PV Plant

Investor

EPC

Contrator

Bank/

Insurance

Company

O&M

Operator

The Stakeholders and their (different) interests

4

Investor

• Long Defect Warranty Period

• Performance guarantees

• Reasonable Low CAPEX

• Reasonable Low OPEX

• High Longterm Plant Performance (ideally

above prediction)

• Observance of all requirements from grid

Operator, legal permits, etc…

• 20years+ operation time

The Stakeholders and their (different) interests

5

Bank/

Insurance

Company

• Long Defect Warranty Period

• Reasonable Low CAPEX

• Reasonable Low OPEX

• High Longterm Plant Performance (in

worst case only slightly below prediction)

• 10-15 years financing period

… very similar to investor

The Stakeholders and their (different) interests

6

EPC

Contrator

• Short Defect Warranty Period

• Minimum of additional guarantees and

warranties

• High Sales Price (via low OPEX

– this affects O&M prices)

[1 €/kWp lower OPEX means 15€/kWp

higher sales price]

• 1 year construction, max. 5 years warranty

…different time horizon than investor

The Stakeholders and their (different) interests

7

O&M

Operator

• Long Defect Warranty Period (incl.

commissioning test at end of that

period!)

• Low Sales Price (to allow for higher

OPEX costs)

• Investors representative against

EPC, grid operator,

• Other service providers

• 20 years +

O&M Operator is one of the key players to manage all these

contradictonary requirements of different stakeholders for a long time

Consolidation (Development of O&M prices in Germany)

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2008 2010 2012 2015

O&M Prices

Consolidation (Development of O&M prices in Germany)

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Monitoring Tool(incl. Transfer)

Monitoring &Reporting

Trouble Shooting

PreventiveMaintenance

Site Keeping

MV Inspection

All – except for Monitoring Tool – very labour intensive.

Hard to reduce costs further.

Consequences of Consolidation/Price Pressure

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• Walk away from „all inclusive“ contracts (no repair „flat rate, etc….)

• Price lists with minimum service level and extra packages

• Must have vs. Nice to have (BGV, DIN)

• Shorter duration of O&M contracts (no 20 years contracts with

fixed prices, etc…)

• Price pressure against subcontractors

• Existing O&M contracts are challenged (in case of transfer to other

contract partner)

• Spare parts management is becoming more complicated (original

supplier out of market, product discontinued)

• Size matters to benefit from economy of scale effects (weekend

stand-by, tools, etc…)

Specifc Risk Areas – Inverter Failures

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A total of 400 inverters were installed in 2012 in 6 plants

Almost 25% failure rate in 3 years – but slowing down with time

Specific problem of power electronics part in some production lots

Long replacement times (>6 weeks in summer) – own spare inverters?

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Specifc Risk Areas – Site Management

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Soil erosion due to unproper preparation of the PV site (at the

slope of a hill) before construction and lack of vegetation

Immediate action required (appropriate drainage inside and outside

of the park)

Picture: Phoenix Solar AG

Specifc Risk Areas – DC Cabling/Rodents

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Damaged isolation (DC cabling by rodents in mounting structure)

Immediate Action required since inverter was shut down due to

isolation fault

Picture: Phoenix Solar AG

Specifc Risk Areas – DC Cabling/Rodents

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Open or damaged cable conduits are an invitation for rodents to

move in (and water to suck in and stay….)

Action required to close the inlets (with fountain foam)

Picture: reniva GmbH

Specifc Risk Areas – High Currents (AC LV)

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Fire in Medium Voltage Station

Very high associated costs (new station, energy losses due to long

lead item)

Picture: reniva GmbH

Specifc Risk Areas – Isolation fault due to fire fighting

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Isolation faults due to water penetration at MV station and capillary

effects

Replacement of all affected cables

Picture: reniva GmbH

Specifc Risk Areas – Thefts

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Inverters seems to become thefts best friends: Similar weight as a

module – but almost 10fold value and less breakage risk during

bumpy transport…

Higher loss due to disconneted arrays: 1 inverter == 100 modules

Picture: eon EGD, reniva GmbH

Technical Risk Assessment – Main Criteria

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Performance Loss

Short Term (Break

Down)

Level Reaction Time

Total Plant or MV

Station Shut Down

Immediate

<3% 24/48h

<1% Next inspection

interval

Long Term

(Degradation)

PID tbd

Soiling tbd

Technical Risk Assessment – Main Criteria

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Issue Risk Action

Personal Safety Electrical Shock Immediate

Damaged component

(but still operational)

Performance Loss,

Subsequent Failures

tbd

Long term integrity of

PV plant

Collapse of

structures, UV

Protection, etc…

tbd

Theft Loss of property Immediate, tbd

Permissions (legal,

grid operator, land

lord, etc…)

Loss of operating

permission,

permanent

Technical Risk Assessment – Review Steps

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• PV Park is new in the portfolio (documentation, historical data,

fingerprint data, initial risk assessment)

• Preventive maintenance report (w/o wear and tear issues)

• Corrective maintenance report

• Fault diagnostics and ticket system of monitoring system

• Any relevant information from market about product problems

(suppliers, product recalls (!), customers, competitors, blogs, etc…)

Trends and Challenges for the Future

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• Spare parts management is becoming more complex with ongoing

consolidation on supplier side but also legal aspects (replacement of

broken/stolen modules (EEG) & inverters (BDEW certification)

• Size matters to benefit from economy of scale effects (weekend stand-

by, tools, new technical challenges in long-term operation, fulfilment of

all legal & grid requirements , etc…)

• Consolidation in O&M segment (take over of O&M portfolios with

unknown quality, migration of historical data, etc..)) will continue with

more competition (cost effectiveness)

• More automization is needed to reduce labour intensive routine work

(data trend analysis, robots & drones, etc…)

• Supervision of O&M (if identical to EPC)

Site Management Risk – Mother Nature….

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..but this should be manageable