Operational and Maintenance (O&M) costs of the PV plants can have a big impact on its viability and success. Preventive maintenance is a traditional technique which involves periodic scheduling and reactive maintenance involves identification and correction of unexpected deviation of performance in the system. These traditional techniques take much time and are expensive not only in terms of manpower effort and money but also costs associated with downtime.

We can reduce Operations and Maintenance cost by digitizing the power plants, that collects electrical data from devices installed on the PV plant and sent to the cloud, where data analysis takes place to perform ‘Root Cause Analysis’ and to predict anomalies in the system with the help of Machine Learning algorithms.

The meaning of Data Analytics has changed rapidly over the past couple of years. Now, with cutting edge technologies of Machine Learning, we can get actionable intelligence from the field data (through IoT) which is simply impossible to perform using mere statistics or regression analysis.

Using Deep Learning algorithms, we can identify field issues in solar power plants (fault classification), such as partial shading, degradation of modules, dust and dirt on modules, improper wiring, poor dynamic MPPT efficiency of inverter, etc. Statistically, it may not be possible to differentiate between these conditions.

Using temporally capable Machine Learning algorithms, predictive, pre-emptive maintenance can be performed, potentially saving permanent damage to the system. Combining these two techniques, it is possible to bring down the O&M costs drastically, as well as reduce the system downtime.

Conclusion: The industry, therefore has to rapidly moving towards adoption of smarter solutions based on IoT and advanced Machine Learning solutions.

In God We Trust, Everyone Else Bring Data to the Table – Indian Solar Industry is still at a very nascent stage of adopting this famous saying in the operations and maintenance. In today’s scenario, most of the solar plants are managed using legacy processes and systems. In case of utility solar plants, technical team is deployed and they follow certain checklists and address breakdowns as and when it happens. Cleaning labors have specific targets of cleaning ‘n’ number of tables per day. As the day ends, field engineers, plant managers churn out ‘Daily Reports’ of various activities in different formats. When Tariff rates are locked for ~2.5 to 2.6 rupees for 25 years, it puts enormous pressure on O&M costs resulting in poor maintenance leading to loss of generation. The need of the hour is ‘advanced analytics’ to introduce a ‘data driven approach’ on each and every aspect of O&M.

O&M teams & Inverter OEMs should jointly mine inverter data and come up prediction on when likely next breakdown will happen and why. This needs to be automated at inverter level or at plant SCADA/Monitoring systems. This could help creating self-healing / machine learning inverters in future. Thereby, reducing generation loss, savings on warranty costs, etc. Preventive maintenance checklists filling have to be done using Tablets/mobile phones and each check list item has to be tracked with a photo or video. Whenever a breakdown happens, the data on when failed part undergone maintenance activity should be automatically linked. This will help to understand how diligently maintenance activities are carried out.

For this, one needs to have a sophisticated software platform which interlaces pure play monitoring, O&M tasks, processes. In this way, the concept of calculating Technical manpower based on size of the project will vanish. One could manage a large 100+ MW plant with a very small team and that too on a need basis.

Like most of the emerging companies our systems have been built over a period of time by using point applications to address tactical business functionality. Mostly the required information used to be scattered across multiple data sources like SCADA, IoT collectors, ERP and internally developed applications.

We sat down with our leadership and mapped the business requirements for the next three to five years and arrived at a Technology Roadmap. We created a data platform through data mining, slicing / dicing and continuous validation through trials. Creating data lakes based on business requirements helped us create predictive analytics and business dashboards. Our achilles heel was in providing for real-time data from various sources including SCADA / PLCs in our Renewable Energy assets. This was as a critical need of the hour for business operations like energy forecasting & Scheduling which are more dynamic, time bound and needed to be accurate for actionable insights and business decisions. Usage of AI and ML in data preparation will be a definite advantage. As part of this initiative we leverage complex existing data structure for large scale process automation by involving simple servicing bots to sophisticated AI agents being deployed for data preparation and data model enhancements.

Our dashboards and energy graphs are assisting Operations & Maintenance teams to identify deviations from projected Vs actual, identifying the odd ones out and gauge the effectiveness of maintenance activities. Early predictions of machine failures will give additional advantages towards making corrective actions / replacements specifically in the Renewable Energy sector which is seasonal in nature and hence can help avoid large scale generation loss.

AI and ML are becoming the cornerstones of our future planning specifically while being used in data preparation, predictive analytics towards machine performance, for streamlining energy forecasting & scheduling operations where multiple predictions required in a day, to detect anomalies across forecasting vendors – to name a few. All these systems involve massive data collation, preparation and continual model improvements. We are on a continuous improvement journey here with a lot more possibilities to harness and improve reliability, efficiency, accuracy and speed of our service platforms.

Our initiation towards analytics readiness will give definite advantage towards reducing penalties arising due to more stringent regulatory requirements on energy forecasting. We are looking forward to plummeting generation losses with better understanding of the real-time data and fine tune our data & AI models.

Asset downtime and underperformance have always been a challenge in the renewable industry. With advanced data analytics, we can now disrupt this area with a deeper understanding of the relationship between various signals and cause of failure. This identification of failures can now be done with good lead time, thereby improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs.

In today’s world, advanced data analytics means a rapid iteration of data analysis on longitudinally and horizontally rich data. Longitudinal data represents years’ worth of data gleaned from one wind turbine, along with historical maintenance and event records. This analysis can help understand gradual performance degradation due to various reasons such as pitch/yaw system issues, higher friction during low wind conditions, and dust accumulation on blades, among others. This type of analysis is becoming a common and affordable practice, as opposed to a specialized consulting engagement, which unlocks operational performance improvement and extends the lifetime of valuable assets.

Horizontally rich data allows the operations team to view asset performance with respect to similar assets in the same geography and compare it with operating conditions. This analysis helps pinpoint acute and chronic conditions of underperforming assets. Data holds less significance if viewed in absolute terms but holds the key if users can derive insights that then can be converted into actionable items. With a diverse portfolio of renewable assets spread across the globe, it’s always helpful if companies have a top-level understanding of how their assets are performing with just one click on their computer or phone. The insights revealed also help make the decision-making process easier.

Another aspect of improving operation and maintenance is to move from scheduled maintenance to predictive maintenance. This helps customers focus their attention to areas that need immediate help, with the algorithms deciding the priority.

Scheduled maintenance can also be effectively executed with more precise power forecasting. With advancement in forecasting techniques, asset farm operators can always decide on the timing of scheduled maintenance to coincide with low power production, thereby reducing net cost.

Industries are sitting on huge amounts of data that have the power to unlock way more value than is potentially being realized from existing assets and resources. Better planning with the investment in the right technology can go a long way.

RE Analytics helps to provide insight into what has happened in the past and why particular events occurred. It helps to predict failures & Realtime performance in comparison with system design to perform predictive maintenance thereby improving the revenue & healthiness of the plant. The below are the various forms of renewable energy analytics & its advantages.

Descriptive analytics:

It is most commonly applied form of analytics. It is used to provide insight into what has happened in the past.

Advantage : It helps for the benchmarking

Diagnostic analytics:

It seeks to understand why particular events occurred. This is often based on testing correlations between various relevant variables.

Advantage : It helps to find similarities / symptoms with other health components

Predictive analytics:

It attempts to develop forecasts. Probability and statistics are employed to understand the likelihood of an outcome occurring based on past information. This sees the complexity of predictive analytics rising significantly relative to earlier stages of analytics.

Advantages : It helps in forecasting & performing predictive maintenance

Prescriptive analytics:

It attempts to estimate the best responses to forecasted events. When operating within a stochastic context this requires complex computational capabilities and will be based on expected value calculations. The benefit of accurately modelling best response decisions can be significant. This form of analytics is primarily dominated by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Advantage : it gives all the benefits of other analysis & also provides intelligence action & performance.

Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) leverages global best practices of Operations and Maintenance combined with advanced data analytics models using AI, ML and DL. RCM helps in decision-making related to maintenance of large assets, its components, maintenance methods and schedules in order to achieve efficient O&M operations.

In comparison with Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) which bases maintenance decisions on condition of equipment, RCM provides insights based on consequences of failure mode. RCM provides an understanding of which failure modes deserve what kind of maintenance and which task needs to be redesigned. With CBM, there can be no upper limit placed on maintenance frequency. But with RCM, it is possible to reduce or limit the number of maintenance needs to be done. However, CBM can be used effectively, with the availability of smart operational and maintenance related data analytics models.

To achieve smart operations, it is critical to track the component-wise efficiency and thereby their impact on overall asset efficiency. The overall efficiency of the asset therefore depends on the efficiency of mechanical and electrical components. And to achieve smart maintenance, it is critical to predict the failure of a component well in advance by which maintenance, replacement, cranes and spares can be planned smartly. IPPs will be able to reduce revenue loss caused due to sudden failures and add credibility to their company during investor evaluation. Through preventive maintenance or well-planned replacement activities, huge savings in maintenance costs can be achieved.

As the characteristics of each asset and each component of the asset are different, we need to have a highly scalable and intelligent model, with several layers of automation using ML & DL, to address any type of component. We can get a complete understanding of the key reasons behind the efficiency loss of an asset, anomaly detection and predict failures well in advance. This helps in taking quick real-time operational and maintenance decisions so that the asset will run at its best possible efficiency with reduced downtime.

In conclusion, the best O&M practices when combined with data analytics creates the right balance between increased revenue from generation and reduced cost of generation.

Recently Government of Gujarat (GoG) have taken an industrial and environmental friendly decisions in order to ensure that the MSME sector is able to reap the benefits of solar energy.

• MSME unit can set up Solar Generation Unit of any Capacity i.e. irrespective of Sanctioned Load or Contract Demand either on Roof Top on Net Metering or Ground Mounted for Wheeling of Solar Power for their own Captive use.
• MSME can purchase Solar power from Third Party.
• Any surplus Solar Power produced by MSME shall be purchased by Discom @ 1.75 Rs./ Unit.

These steps may bring big boost to encourage MSME sector to start producing their own Solar Plant. As a Consultant, we can anticipate a lot of upcoming Solar Projects from MSME sector due to their shift pattern, in general MSME sectors works on One or Two Shift and their peak demand always observed in day time. And hence generated Solar Power can be utilized straight away during the peak requirements. We can learn in simple example, How MSME sector can reduce their Electricity Burdon :

For example, if MSME pay Rs. 8.00 per unit during day time. Now if during day time and during peak working hours, direct use of Solar Power can give profit of Rs. 3.00 per unit. However to achieve maximum benefits, they have to understand combination of Demand & Solar Power Supply Curves. As per Policy, Accounting of Solar Generation will be carried out on 15 Minutes Time Block basis. That means, Consumption of Solar Energy must be within the same 15 Minutes required. To gain maximum benefits, MSME firm can identify following general steps :

• Priority wise loading pattern can be identified as per gradual rise of solar power after the sun rise. Non-critical power can be controlled by the use of Demand Controller.
• During peak Solar Power Generation, maximum operation of miscellaneous equipment or ancillaries can be done.

The recent amendment in MSME sector i.e. allowing installation of solar power plant of more than 100% of sanction load is according to me a huge boost for the industry. This shall act as a catalyst in achieving the central government’s target of 100 GW by 2022. Till now there was a restriction of 50% which was holding back industry owners to install a solar photovoltaic system to their maximum capacity even if they wanted to. Now, since the solar power plant installation has already become economically viable for the industries with an average ROI of 4 years, this move by the government will encourage more and more MSME’s to go solar. Also, since the amendment, I have experienced that industry owners have welcomed this move with open arms as almost all MSME’s that I meet intend to go solar in the near future.

The other aspect I see in the current trend is that most of the industries are going towards cost cutting by many means. I see that installation of a solar power plant as an alternate source of power is the best possible means of cost cutting one can opt for. Since the government has restricted setting up new thermal power plants, this move will be beneficial for Discoms as well to achieve their renewable energy obligations. Having said that, the maximum power is consumed by large scale units where still there is a restriction of 50% of sanction load in Gujarat. I strongly urge that this should also be removed gradually to further boost the renewable energy generation.

The Policy for Manufacturing Enterprises in the MSME Sector of Gujarat is a welcome boost for the sector. The policy has raised a lot of hope and interest for MSME’s who are looking to adopt solar energy to reduce power costs. There are currently more than 3,00,000 MSME registered units in Gujarat.

However, currently there are a number of points in the policy which are stopping its adoption. The biggest roadblock for swift adoption seems to be the 15-minute timeblock for the consumption of the energy produced. This is not possible for MSME’s as this timeblock does not account for weekly off-days and the very nature of MSME’s where predicting power consumption is not possible in such a coordinated manner.

The policymakers can certainly think of ways to counteract this concern of MSME sector. If this is done, then this policy can take Gujarat’s solar capacity to new heights.

The new amendment for MSME sector in the Gujarat Solar policy 2015 will be a big boost for the sector as they will be able to generate more solar power which will help them to reduce the overall power cost and in turn reduce their operating cost. Though there are certain additional charges that they will have to pay line the ED (15%) which was earlier exempted. But still the industries are going to get a set off at the rate of approx 6.30/Kwh in their bills which is substantial savings and makes sense. Though this changes does not favour the 3rd party sale to MSEMs as the policy mentions 100% CSS and ASC which makes the proposition unviable.

The Gujarat government has recently launched an incentive scheme for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), this new initiative will offer a win-win situation to the MSME sector.

The cap on 50% load capacity has been removed for MSMEs in case of solar power generation. With this, MSME units would be able to install 100% or even more capacity of solar power plant.

Additional power generated by these units would be purchased by state-owned electricity companies at Rs 1.75 per unit.

Also, in case MSME units don’t have adequate own land to install solar panels, they would be allowed to generate solar power in rented land. However, the electricity duty and wheeling charges have to be paid by the MSME units as per the existing norms.

At present, MSMEs pay Rs 8 per unit for electricity consumption. The new decision will benefit the MSME sector and earn them a profit of Rs 3 per unit. The firms will make a profit of Rs 3.80 per unit if they produce solar energy on their own land, and in the case of leased land, they will make a profit of Rs 2.75 per unit.

The above changes in the solar power policy of 2015, will encourage 33 lakh MSME units towards production and use of green and clean energy.

There are 33 lakh MSME units with investment of up to Rs. 10 crore in the Gujarat state that are eligible for the relaxation.

We are now the leading Solar EPC Company across Gujarat and PAN India for every kind of MSME and Commercial units, with our prominent presence in almost all major sectors, among which few of them are categorized as follows:

1. Oil & Gas- Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
2. Automotive – Hero Motocorp, Force Motors
3. Manufacturing – GYSCOAL Alloys Ltd., Achint Chemicals, Pegma Resources Pvt. Ltd.
4. Textiles – Western Suitings Pvt. Ltd.
5. Food processing – Jovial Foods Pvt. Ltd. (Aashirvaad Atta)
6. Transport – Chartered Bus
7. Renewable energy – Suzlon Energy Ltd.

To encourage micro, small, medium enterprise (MSME) units to switch towards clean energy, The Gujarat Government has amended its existing solar policy which allows MSME units to install solar power projects that are more than 100 % of their sanctioned load or contract demand. Before this announcement, commercial and industrial clients were allowed to install only 50 % of their sanctioned load.

The definition of MSME is considered as per the 2006 Act which should have been according to the latest amendment. In Spite of this fact MSME units would definitely be benefited from this decision as this policy change can help them to reduce their power costs. In addition, the policy has supported RESCO model which allows the MSME unit to buy power from third parties as well. This policy change is a welcome move to scale up solar power generation in the state.

Although, it’s unlikely to spur demand for implementation of solar power plants among the MSME units as they would be liable to pay transmission & wheeling charges, electrical duty and Cross Subsidy surcharge for captive or third party use.

This new initiative is indeed a boost for the commercial and industrial segment and may motivate clients to adopt solar power however Customer’s interest can fall succumbed to clause like Energy accounting where consumer is given a time block of 15 minute to consume electricity generated from solar power, failing to do so the unused surplus solar energy would be purchased by the Discom at 1.75/unit which is lower than the average power procurement cost (APPC) rate of Rs. 2.50/unit.

Bangladesh is seeking to Promote sustainable development and renewable energy is the key part to develop this sector. As Government & Private sector are trying hard to take a key role in this sector but they are facing the following challenges:

1) Awareness of Government Policy: Most of the people do not have adequate knowledge of the Government rules & regulations of renewable energy policy but Government & Private Sector are trying hard to Overcome this situation. Also Government are taking time to finalize the renewable Policy because Government is trying to involve all the stakeholders in this sector and its very good initiatives.

2) Prefabrication Structure: In Bangladesh we are facing lack of Prefabricated structure manufacturing vendor which help very much to complete Projects in time & makes installation easy.

3) Evacuation: Evacuation is major challenges & costly to Implement PV Power in Bangladesh.It is very hard to get Medium Voltage & High Tension Voltage Line nearby PV Power Plant and in LV Line it faces load shedding, Low Voltage, poor Line, Deeps, sudden blackout resulting PV Power loss for Sponsor. If Government takes initiatives to develop evacuation cost at their end it will be more effective for PV Projects Implementation

4) Land Scarcity: In Bangladesh mostly plain & cultivated land. Abandon land are very few and it may takes Several GWp but such a remote area which takes huge cost involvement for evacuations.

5) Smart Grid : There are a lot of Challenges to connect PV Power to the Conventional Grid Line and sometimes it causes big problems for the existing line because of SCADA & load distributions. So we need Smart Grid Immediately where Load sharing will be easy for PV Grid Connections. But Government yet to make decision for Smart Grid line for Renewable energy distribution.

6) Skilled Personnel: There is another Challenges where to get skilled people or Organization to Design, Drawings, System Instigation & Installation technicians.

In spite of the fact that our Government is trying to finish all regulatory policies very shortly & we hope all policies will be complete by Dec 2019 and then there will be time to take into other disciplines to mitigate the above challenges.

Bangladesh Government just passed net metering guideline in 2018 which has been an encouraging move by MOPAMR to promote Solar Rooftop System on any unused space inside the premises where either an industry, commercial or a residential establishment is placed. It has certainly helped in speeding up the installations, and ensured a better ROI for the sponsors and with the availability of low-cost finance from IDCOL it certainly is a sector to concentrate on. Currently utility companies don’t take significant amount of time to change uni-directional meter to bi-directional meter and it has been a matter of submitting an application to the utility company only, and rest is been taken care of. During execution of the project and after the finance is confirmed there are few hurdles for an EPC company to get over one of them is the taxation during import which cumulatively adds up to 15% of the material cost in total and on top of that EPC companies need to add VAT and AIT during issuance of sales invoice, which is not at all a friendly environment for rooftop developers ultimately resulting in higher LCOE. Government needs to take a reasonable smart step to minimize all sort of taxation and this surely would contribute in growth of this particular sector of this country.

The current liquidity crunch being felt in the Indian Solar sector is very segment-specific. For utility-scale projects, the developers have been facing resistance from banks due to current low PPA rates. However, for developers of open access and RESCO projects, financing was already tough to come by and has become even more difficult. The private industry has seen their sanctioned limits reduced or loans called back. This squeeze has reduced the debt capital for solar.

To recover from this liquidity crunch, more banks need to lend to the solar sector. Currently, the only state lenders to solar developers are SBI and PNB, and in the private space, L&T and Tata. These lenders require solar developers to invest in companies with a minimum BBB+ credit rating, which vastly reduces the number of companies that could receive loans. Hence, the remaining companies do not have access to low cost finance from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Therefore, we require more NBFCs and banks, which are willing to deal with zero debt companies and lower credit quality, to lend to the sector. The need of the hour is a solarfocused NBFC that is proficient in the technical aspects of solar and counterparty risk assessment. It creates efficient lending as well as effective installation and maintenance of these assets. This seems to be the most sustainable way out of this liquidity squeeze.

Indian solar sector has shown a remarkable growth with utility scale installed capacity more than tripled from 9GW to 30GW (with another 4.3GW of mostly behind the meter rooftop solar capacity) during the period January 2017 to September 2019. Since FY 2010-11, solar prices have dropped by more than 75 percent in India, from as high as Rs.12.16 per kWh in December 2010 to Rs. 2.45 per kWh in May 2017.

In the last few months, the sector witnessed a setback on account of the confusion regarding the Goods & Service Tax (GST) and the import duty on solar equipment. Further, offtake of renewable energy power requires grid strengthening and creation of demand through open-access platforms in the situation when discoms are violating the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Further, non-payment by DISCOMs adding to woes of the solar developers. As per CEA September 2019 report, discoms owe Rs. 9736 crores to renewable energy (RE) developers.

To rebuild the momentum in solar deployment, the government needs to act fast. The sanctity of the competitive auction process should not be violated with imposition of tariff ceilings and serial cancellation/resizing of announced bids. Further, curtailment of solar power to be addressed by strengthening inter-state transmission network. The states should facilitate acquisition of land for development of solar projects.

In order to revive the sector and attract investment, policy certainty and strict enforcement of PPAs is required to build investor confidence. A robust payment security system to be built in requiring adequacy and validity of Letter of Credit (LC) to cover the payments due on account of drawl of power.

Infrastructure is one of the most critical sectors of any economy and the cornerstone of its economic development. A well-developed infrastructure set-up enables the overall development of a country and facilitates a steady inflow of investments, thereby augmenting the capital base available for the growth in a sustained manner.

Given such importance of infrastructure sector, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had introduced the concept of Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvITs) in 2014, with a view to promote infrastructure development in India. InvITs are trust vehicles, which are listed on stock exchanges, raise funds from investors (retail as well as institutional), acquire income yielding infrastructure assets, manage such assets, and distribute regular yields to the investors under a SEBI regulated regime.

InvITs which are listed on Indian stock exchange(s) can either be privately placed or public. As the name suggests, privately placed InvITs can raise funds from institutional investors, public InvITs can raise funds from retail as well as institutional investors and have more diversified and low risk investment conditions. The concept of a privately placed and unlisted InvIT has also been recently introduced by SEBI.

InvITs have off late been garnering a lot of attention, not just from the investor and sponsor community, but even from Govt. of India, which has been keenly exploring InvITs as a possible means to monetize its infrastructure assets held by CPSEs.

Given the ambitious target of achieving 175GW of renewable energy by 2022, which Govt. of India has set itself, InvITs are sure to play a significant role in the solar sector, which still needs a lot of capital and funding, by augmenting long-term capital from foreign as well as domestic investors.

The development of solar sector has recently been hit by multiple issues such as power tariff disputes, GST concerns, imposition of safeguard duty on panels imported from China and Malaysia, issues in raising capital, which has led to a decline in investor interest in solar auctions and delay in completion of existing projects. In such a scenario, InvITs could act as a game changer for the solar sector, on account of various factors, such as strong corporate governance framework of SEBI, stable long-term returns because of mandatory distribution rules of 90% of cash flows, capped leverage ratio, lower risks, high quality assets, sponsor lock-in of 15% units for 3 years and tax benefits on income distributions (such as exemption from DDT under specified conditions, taxation of interest for nonresidents @ 5% etc.). As per press reports, Tata power and Piramal Enterprises are already in the planning stage for setting up renewable focused InvITs.

InvITs act as an efficient and optimum structure for financing/ refinancing of solar projects and to free up sponsor capital for reinvestment into other avenues, thereby acting as a catalyst in the development of this sector. More specifically in solar sector, InvITs could play a critical role by easing the burden of the banking sector, by replacing/refinancing existing high cost bank debt with long-term low-cost capital from investors, which would help banks to reduce their exposure to solar sector. InvITs are thus expected to get a lot of traction in coming times.