New Industry Products

Utility-Scale Solar Power Monitoring Platform

June 16, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

Swinerton has created a new division -- utilizing and expanding the SOLV® (System Operations Live View) brand. SOLV evolved out of Swinerton Renewable Energy's Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) capabilities, providing Operations and Maintenance (O&M) services for renewable energy projects around the country.

As the market continued to grow, and new prospects emerged, Swinerton identified an opportunity to manage solar plants not only built for their clients, but for any owner of renewable assets. Recognizing they could offer much more than a software platform, SOLV now provides the complete solution, including design engineering services, plant controls, performance analytics, asset management, optimization, monitoring, and management. In doing so, Swinerton is redefining the meaning of O&M -- from "Operations and Maintenance" to "Optimize and Manage." These offerings increase customers' bottom line, giving them the highest amount of energy at lower costs.

Led by Swinerton Renewable Energy Vice President George Hershman and Swinerton Renewable Energy Director of Operations Angelo Purpura, SOLV is creating its new identity within the market. Consolidating the SOLV brand as, "The Complete Solar Management Solution," Swinerton is committing their expertise and industry leading experience to the SOLV team. From managers to performance engineers, and field technicians, their success hinges on the team's ability to act as a one-stop shop for clients, with everything completed in-house. This includes monitoring renewable plants from a state-of-the-art Network Operations Center at the SOLV headquarters located in San Diego, California. As SOLV continues to expand across the United States, they are hiring additional employees at a rapid rate.

SOLV differentiates itself in the industry by using operational SMARTs (System Management Analytics & Response Time). Rather than receiving an alert and simply rolling a truck, SOLV's performance engineers use algorithms and analytics to pull from thousands of different data points, diagnosing the issue prior to dispatching personnel to the site. Rolling SMART trucks minimizes down time and reduces repair costs and overall revenue loss.

"SOLV has the ability to optimize and manage a renewable asset to its fullest potential. Applying our proprietary algorithms to thousands of data points on these assets gives us insight to the health of the plant. This capability surpasses anything we've seen on the market. Combined with experienced field techs, we dispatch service trucks that are SMART," remarked Hershman.

The analytics engine of the SOLV management platform allows for daily evaluation of all key power plant components. This everyday health check helps identify the smallest of concerns, recommending the solution, and directing field technicians to the exact location of the fault -- in some cases, identifying potential faults not immediately detected. In addition to providing preventive maintenance while on site, technicians can also efficiently address every performance-related issue correlated to plant optimization.