Preventive Maintenance in Solar Power Plants

Preventive Maintenance in Solar Power Plants is a proactive maintenance strategy that involves regular and routine maintenance of equipment to reduce the likelihood of failure leading to unplanned downtime. A preventive approach through scheduled cleaning, repairs, adjustments and part replacements increases the availability of equipment and machinery.

Solar power plants preventive maintenance focuses on regularly testing electrical connections, checking the condition of the panel’s fixings and the good overall condition of the solar panels.

Solar panel manufacturers give recommendations on how to inspect a solar installation and, for large-scale SPP sites, dedicate teams to these inspections to avoid any risk of failure. Corrective measures will be taken if any of these tests reveal problems or raise concerns.

If the faults found in solar power plants are made with traditional methods, this process takes a lot of time. The process is carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles with MapperX Artificial Intelligence Software, which is produced entirely with domestic facilities, and then, thanks to artificial intelligence, the reports of the faults are transferred to the plant owner in detail in a very short time.

Delayed thermographic inspection procedures at SPP sites can cause major problems in the future, regular thermographic inspection procedures and preventive maintenance will increase plant efficiency.

It shows that the energy output of solar panels is greatly reduced when they are left uncleaned. This is especially the case in dusty, arid and windy areas as the wind blows sand onto the panels.

In mild conditions, even in rainy weather and on a slope that helps water to flow downwards, dried dirt is noticed to remain on the panels. Settled dirt also tends to stay on the panels longer.

Shade on PV panels will temporarily reduce production, while dirt will permanently reduce production. In factories of all sizes, dirt accumulated on panels over the course of a year can cause anywhere from 1.5% to 30% reduction in productivity.

Without preventive maintenance, the likelihood of a larger problem arising that could significantly impact overall production or the safety of the system increases.

Over time, many SPP sites lose some of their initial installed capacity, resulting in a drop in energy yield. Single cells break down, important components such as inverters cannot operate at maximum efficiency. In addition to the resulting reduced efficiency, the heating of faults can cause further damage to the installation and ultimately lead to fires.

Using thermal imaging, these faults, also called hot spots, can be easily found and then repaired in a targeted manner. Due to the variety of photovoltaic installation manufacturers in use today, a large number of defects can show various geometric appearances.

A prerequisite for reliable defect detection is the expertise of skilled inspectors as well as thermographic cameras with exceptional features.

The MapperX software allows for efficient reporting of data from thermographic images and the generation of comprehensive reports to ensure clear, complete documentation of inspection results.

What is a Solar Power Plant?

Solar energy is the cleanest renewable energy source. So how is solar energy produced? Solar energy is produced in solar power plants thanks to PV panels. Solar power plants are PV power plants that convert the energy obtained from sunlight into electrical energy. The panels used in solar power plants are quite large.

Large solar cells are used in PV power plants. The main material of these batteries is gallium arsenide and crystalline silicon. The rays coming to the solar panels are converted into energy by the panels and stored in large solar cells or batteries. The systems that do this are called “solar power plants”.

Although solar power plants are costly in terms of installation, the materials to be used and the size of the facility vary according to the ground characteristics and geographical location.

Qualification of Personnel

In particular, test personnel should have sufficient knowledge of thermography, including electrical installations, Pv installations as well as the analysis of thermographic findings in electrical systems;

Demonstration of sufficient knowledge to be able to work on electrical installations,

Knowledge and skills in electro thermography should be secured by proof of qualification and certification.

For a simplified thermographic inspection during commissioning of a PV plant, the technician should be familiar with the basic functionality of a PV plant. In addition, sufficient knowledge of thermographic measurements will be available.

Access to electrical installations, such as opening enclosures with access to electrically charged parts, will be classified to electrically qualified persons.

In case the personnel have appropriate knowledge about the functionality of a PV plant, a two-day training session on the basics of thermography and thermographic characteristics of PV plants will be sufficient for the commissioning of the PV system. IR camera training provided by the manufacturer is not sufficient.

For detailed thermographic inspection, the authorized expert of the PV plants should have in-depth knowledge of the failure modes and thermographic imaging of the PV system. In our previous article, we gave information about Solar Power Plants Air Thermography, you can click and review our article.