Reducing PV plant underperformance at fleet scale

Unlike traditional underperformance detection methods based on irradiance data, PV Health Scan detects underperformance by means of automated statistical analysis of the power output data of all the plant’s individual inverters or any other equipment (called ‘subsystem’) for which monitoring is available. The algorithm uses the data to calculate a virtual reference subsystem, subsequently offsetting each subsystem’s performance against it. This results in a heatmap, clearly highlighting underperforming subsystems.

The analysis also produces a health score spider chart, which indicates the plant’s relative performance to the fleet with respect to major and minor underperformance events, time between failures, health recovery time, downtime, and production deviation. This allows PV fleet owners to quantify production losses, assess plant market value, prioritize maintenance, and provide valuable return on experience for developing new assets.