Solar Asset Management with SunSat™ Digital Twin

Reuniwatt’s SunSat™ Digital Twin offers PV performance monitoring through satellite-to-irradiance data, enabling better business, information and asset management in the digital world. It allows asset managers room for improving the asset value while ensuring optimal functioning of the solar fleet.

Reliable satellite-to-irradiance-based health checks for Asset Managers

Steady performance quality remains an issue in solar asset management and triggers the demand for reliable, high-quality operational management solutions. Adequate monitoring of the solar power plants’ performance is necessary to guarantee the optimal O&M database and information for successful solar asset management. Reuniwatt’s latest tool, SunSat™ Digital Twin, regroups climatological, meteorological and solar production data to help asset management decision-making in the complex world of monitoring.
The solution is based on Reuniwatt’s proprietary SunSat™ technology for solar performance monitoring, based on images provided by the visible channel of geostationary satellites’ sensors, which can be converted into global horizontal irradiance (GHI) maps with a proven accuracy. With the given irradiance, the expected output of a power plant can be compared to its actual output power, allowing to judge the performance of a site. Relying on acknowledged methods, SunSat™ Digital Twin is a powerful tool for solar power plants’ asset managers to obtain health-checks at a glance, and to double-check the results from the field. It offers both historical time series and live data. Historical satellite data is crucial within the first phases of a solar project. Irradiance time series are necessary to optimally size and design solar power plants and provide bankable data, while real-time data allow for quick detection of any instrumental failure or soiling. SunSat™ Digital Twin enables solar asset managers to closely supervise irradiance, production and revenues for their solar portfolio. It also summarizes asset management analytics from yield values to previous meteorological periods and long-term average comparisons into performance reports, to grasp information at a glance and have a handy format of presenting it to solar asset owners.

Preserving the value of solar assets

Centralizing your digital maintenance with our high-quality data across your solar assets helps avoid quality issues caused by pollution, ageing equipment or unexpected technical damages. It also allows maintenance operators to provide faster and more accurate services: if an issue occurs, a notification will be sent to the user immediately, based on a 15-minute granularity commercial irradiance-to-power model with worldwide coverage. Lastly, our tool will provide you with an accurate fault database, allowing for further evaluation of risks and adequate response options. Our web-based services provide a comfortable user experience, and the resulting data can be effortlessly integrated into major O&M and asset management software tools via API.
O&M is now a stand-alone segment in the value chain of solar power plants, as proper “health checks” of solar assets have become a necessary skill to meet performance expectations. The use of real time health checks, such as SunSat™ Digital Twin, is an essential part of the comprehensive digital quality assurance for solar asset managers. Our solar management strategy is adaptable to challenges worldwide: rapid changes in the cloud coverage and weather conditions, as well as high soiling rates in dusty desert regions and special circumstances such as pollution require inclusive and adequate monitoring techniques for optimal solar asset control and to allow for the optimal monetization of the existing solar assets. Reuniwatt’s satellite-to-irradiance technology offers globally available, highly accurate and cost-efficient real-time supervision for solar power plants. Furthermore, SunSat™ Digital Twin allows for the use of Reuniwatt’s precise solar irradiance forecasts from satellite data, based on Reuniwatt’s satellite-data based forecasting model, guaranteeing data availability even for remote sites all around the world. Our software model is acknowledged by and can be used in combination with all major PV software, such as PVsyst or O&M management software tools.
Thanks to its characteristics, SunSat™ Digital Twin will ensure you the best data for maintenance planning and to never miss a necessary maintenance date by notifying you in case of immediate need for action or when one power plant does not perform as expected. SunSat™ Digital Twin makes it easy to always ensure top level performance of your solar fleet, and preserve the best asset value on the long-term through optimal O&M.

Performance analysis impacts investment decisions

SunSat™ is a methodology which uses geostationary meteorological satellites to estimate solar irradiance, benefiting from constant improvement of satellite data accuracy. With SunSat™ Digital Twin, solar asset managers gain an intelligent solar asset management tool based on scientific methods, which enables standardized practices and helps you follow your individual strategy. Your standards for solar asset management can be used as a communication tool and will significantly increase the trust and transparency around asset management and investment decisions. With Reuniwatt’s hardware-free solution, every solar asset manager can simply download and visualize their solar fleet’s individual results via our Myriad platform for a period of their choice, with all in-depth information available through a user-friendly layout for reporting.
Additionally, storage and hybrid units are fast-emerging add-on energy generation sources. Thanks to performance monitoring, not only can asset managers and (small) power producers evaluate the need for storage use, but also reduce the general risk of storage through the deployment of performance warranties. Easy-to-use monitoring solutions such as SunSat™ Digital Twin will significantly reduce OPEX through O&M digitization and optimization.

Solar assets should be monitored on a regular basis

With a variety of factors impacting the bottom line of a PV system, it is necessary to monitor key metrics of a solar system on a regular basis. Solar asset management is an important element in minimizing operations and maintenance expenses, and it is essential for solar asset managers to think of the sets of data and reports they will require to allow for optimal OPEX.
To identify the operational health of an asset, a reliable model of irradiance-based asset performance is a prerequisite. A globally available, affordable and a hardware-free solution, SunSat™ Digital Twin offers a picture of your diverse solar portfolio at a glance.
Meet us at Solar Asset Management Europe, 30-31.10.2019. to find out more or contact us for a personalized offer: Get in touch with us now.

Reuniwatt is also offering forecasting services to help the energy system operators cope with irradiance variability, minimize curtailment and maximize grid capacity with existing solar assets. To learn more about our forecasting products and services for plant operations, visit https://reuniwatt.com/en/applications/solar-forecasting-for-plant-operations/