Page 50 - CIJ March 2024 - Digital Edition

Facility ManageMent

Increasing

Solar

Efficiency

with

Maintenance

A solar plant is a capital-intensive business,
as 95 per cent of the investment goes into
building the plant while the operations & maintenance
constitutes about 2%. Though O&M is a low-cost centre, the

output generated from a solar plant and its return on investment are
directly dependent on how well the plant is operated and maintained, says
Tanya Singhal, Founder at Mynzo Carbon and SolarArise, a company that
owns and operates large solar plants across India.

olar system maintenance (IPP). It has seven plants which 1,000 acres of land, equivalent
is all about ensuring the generate 500MW of electricity, to 500 football fields. A rooftop
plant keeps running and enough to power 250,000 homes. solar system generating 1kw,
generating electricity. These large-scale grid-connected conversely, can be accommodated
SMaintenance can be both plants use solar power, replacing in a 20sqm area. The variance in
regular and preventive. Regular coal as its source. The company scale offers diverse maintenance
maintenance includes cleaning of buys land of about 1000 acres, challenges.
panels, ensuring all connectors populates it with solar panels and A solar park with thousands of
are in place for power evacuation signs a PPA (Power Purchase panels may take at least a month
to grids and clearing of grass Agreement) with either the to clean but a roof-top solution
or shrubs that may shade the Central or State government. It with 100 panels could take a day.
panels from the sun. Preventive builds an evacuation line from the Similarly, finding an electrical
maintenance, which is anticipating closest sub-station to the plant and fault in a large plant could be
problems in advance, requires generates power. For every unit very cumbersome, like looking
preemptive work. While regular of solar power, the government for a needle in a haystack. While
maintenance is done daily and pays a fixed tariff as agreed in the maintenance may be easier for a
does not require much manpower, PPA. The grid then distributes the rooftop solution, it is usually in
preventive maintenance needs power to consumers in villages, a populated area so issues like
data and AI to anticipate where a cities or industries. shading from nearby buildings
problem might occur and requires Solar parks can have plants or pollution would be more
proactive & corrective measures. generating anywhere between pronounced. Rooftop solutions
SolarArise is a large 100mw to 500mw of power. work on net-metering requiring
Independent Power Producer A 100mw plant would need high maintenance.

MARCH 2024•Clean India Journal
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