Solar Plant Vision™
Fat Spaniel’s “Energy Spotlight” solutions allow energy consumers and building operators to demonstrate their energy efficiency and environmental leadership. Of all independently monitored solar electric systems in California, 80% rely on Fat spaniel solutions. Fat Spaniel’s Solar Plant VisionTM software and hosted services are tailored to the discrete needs of solar photovoltaic (PV) project developers, system designers, operations personnel, plant owners, and energy consumers. The end-to-end solutions deliver high-accuracy, predictive capabilities that address complete lifecycle management.
“Until recently, the primary focus of the renewable energy industry has been on improving and augmenting generation to drive costs down to accelerate the rate of adoption.” said Al Velosa, Research Director at Gartner. “However, many are only now beginning to realize that efficient life-cycle and performance management is essential in achieving these goals, leading to increased asset value and reduced risk. As we work to create a low carbon economy, the use of IT marks the next benchmark for solar. In fact, the use of IT will be essential to facilitate the solar industry’s business model.”
Solar Plant Vision services deliver high-accuracy, predictive capabilities that address complete lifecycle management. Tailored to operations and maintenance (O&M) teams and project managers, the solutions help optimize solar plant production and overall portfolio performance. Complete operational and diagnostic data is collected continually; environmental data can be gathered from plant locations or downloaded from satellite services. Breakthrough capabilities are focused in three areas:
- Plant Management: A full range of device monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance tracking maximizes production while minimizing costs.
- Revenue Management: Billing and reporting features simplify financial and compliance management efforts.
- Marketing and Education: Real-time portfolio status can be displayed on Internet-connected PCs to educate energy consumers, or displayed in kiosks located in lobbies, retail stores, and other public places where clean energy can be promoted and marketed.
Solar Plant Vision lets today’s operators achieve industry-leading results including increased plant uptime, meeting or exceeding Power Purchase Agreement terms, and driving down total maintenance costs by up to 30%. Flexible product structuring gives customers the ability to choose a service or software solution best suited to the need:
- Solar Plant Vision Premium Edition: the category‐defining hosted solution geared for O&M.
- Solar Plant Vision Base Edition: a comprehensive software solution for detecting faults, visualizing asset performance, and running standard reports.
- Feature Packs: for customizing the Base Edition with tailored charts and user interfaces.
Solar Plant Vision Premium Edition provides end-to-end lifecycle management capabilities to O&M and project management teams. The SaaS service speeds start up, and offers affordable terms based on plant scale. Solar Plant Vision Base Edition provides a stand-alone software solution to customers that only need base-level monitoring, reporting, and visualization capabilities. Solar Plant Vision Base and Premium Editions and Solar Operations Services can be quoted immediately, and will be available starting in October 2009.