top of page
Solar Panels Technicians

Operation & Maintenance

Administration of Operation :​

Ensures effective implementation and control of O&M services including curation of as-built drawings, equipment inventories, owners and operating manuals, and warranties. Curation involves not only keeping an archive but also selecting what to keep, pursuing missing documents, preserving documents, keeping them up to date, and, finally, archiving documents.

Conducting Operations :

  • Ensures efficient, safe, and reliable process operations including making decisions about maintenance actions based on cost/benefit analysis.

  • Serving as a point of contact for personnel regarding operation of the PV system;

  • Co-ordinating with others regarding system operation;

  • Preparing power and energy forecasts;

  • scheduling maintenance operations;

  • listing spare parts inventory (either in stock onsite or in suppliers’ consignment stocks);

  • Inspecting work and approving invoices.

  • Day-to-day operation of the system to maximize power delivery, assess performance and trends, operate the grid interface, manage curtailments, or adjust settings such as power factor or other ancillary services.

  • Operations activities related to utility interaction or distribution-system integration/control

Directions for the performance of work :

  • Ensure that maintenance is performed safely and efficiently, including the formalization and enforcement of safety policy [including training for direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)] safety, rooftop safety, minimum staffing requirements, arc flash, and lock-out/tag-out); work hours; site access, laydown areas and parking; and any other stipulations under which work is performed.

  • Confirming and enforcing qualifications of service providers,

  • Compliance with any environmental or facility-level policies regarding the handling of controlled materials (e.g., solvents, weed killer, insecticide).

Monitoring :

  • Maintains monitoring system and analysis of resulting data to remain informed on system status, metering for revenue, alarms, diagnostics, and security monitoring.

  • comparing results of system monitoring to benchmark expectation and providing reports to facility stakeholders.

  • periodically preparing reports as required by O&M contract or as required by the system owner, including reports of plant performance, key performance indicators, problems and alarms, and maintenance services performed.

  • Site security is performed both locally and with remote monitoring (e.g., cameras, intruder alarms) to protect against theft and vandalism.

Operator knowledge, Protocols, Documentation :

  • Ensures that operator knowledge, training, and performance will support safe and reliable plant operation. Information such as electrical drawings, part specifications, manuals, performance information, and records must be deliberately maintained and properly filed/catalogued.

Administration of Maintenance 

  • This overlaps with “administration of operations” and ensures effective implementation, control, and documentation of maintenance services and results.

  • Administration includes establishing budgets and securing funds for preventive maintenance;

  • Establishing reserves or lines of credit for corrective maintenance;

  • Planning services to avoid conflict with system operation or operations at the customer site; correspondence with customers;

  • selection and contracting with service suppliers and equipment manufacturers;

  • record keeping;

  • enforcement of warranties;

  • providing feedback to designers of new systems; and reporting on system performance and the efficacy of the O&M program.

Preventive Maintenance :

  • Scheduling and frequency of preventive maintenance is set by the operations function and is influenced by a number of factors, such as equipment type, environmental conditions at the site (e.g., marine, snow, pollen, humidity, dust, wildlife), and warranty terms.

  • Scheduled maintenance is often carried out at intervals to conform to the manufacturers’ recommendations, as required by the equipment warranties.

Corrective Maintenance :

  • Required to repair damage or replace failed components.

  • It is possible to perform some corrective maintenance such as inverter resets or communications resets remotely.

  • Also, less urgent corrective maintenance tasks can be combined with scheduled, preventive maintenance tasks.

Condition based Maintenance :

  • Real-time information from data loggers to schedule preventive measures such as cleaning or to head off corrective maintenance problems by anticipating failures or catching them early.

bottom of page