News

Optimizing PV Production with Cloud Computing

March 30, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

Billion Electric Co. Ltd. is celebrating its success of the 4th annual partnership with the largest solar panel installer in Australia. Billion-designed BEsmart Solar Monitoring System, constructed by smart meters, Internet gateways, and cloud system, is proven to maximize solar asset management successfully and increase the yield of energy production. To help solar owners gain an easy access to the status of their solar systems, Billion partners with the largest solar installer in Australia and integrates its wholly-owned smart meters, Internet gateways, and cloud software in every solar installation. The intelligent monitoring system begins to assist the business in highlighting problematic areas and closely monitoring daily solar generation.

Solar installers can now ensure that clients' solar systems are working at the most optimum level, resulting in maximum solar generation and increasing power returned to the grid. With a revenue of ten million USD dollars per year, Billion has distributed over 7000 sets of solar energy management solution to the solar installer who provides additional monitoring service for over 15,000 solar owners since 2011.

International utility companies are widely recognizing the importance of green energy and sustainability after the energy conservation movement began to progress. Especially in Australia, the adoption of clean energy is growing rapidly among residential users as a cost-efficient replacement of expensive electricity resource. Hundreds of thousands of people start to install small solar panels on top of their households, collect the free sunlight, and exchange into additional monthly paycheck with utility companies.

However, solar owners normally lack the proper technology that monitors the current status of their solar systems. The absence of an open auditing system commonly causes the delay of detecting facility abnormality and the inconsistency between the paychecks issued by a utility company and the money that solar owners should collect.

The sales value of solar installer has significantly risen over the four years of time frame and is making more money than it ever did. Before, when the purchase usually ended after the installation of solar equipment, solar installer is now given more options to generate long-term profits by providing system performance reports and collecting monthly monitoring fees. The transparent solar performance index further allows solar owners to build social groups, as well as to share and discuss in-depth information about the quality of various vendors and the effectiveness of different brands of maintenance equipment.

Commenting on the new business model, Jason Liao, Deputy Manager of the Power and Energy Management Division at Billion Electric Co. Ltd, says, "By combing energy measurement with the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technology, solar installers can assist their clients in monitoring the real-time status of solar systems built at scattered locations. BEsmart Solar Cloud Solution not only drastically increases the convenience of remote asset management, but also optimizes the yield of solar power production. This energy monitoring facility will surely become an essence that every solar system must have in the foreseeable future."