Industrial IoT Improves Solar Farm Operating Performance
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) provides technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and financial services for projects in the hydrocarbon, infrastructure, power, process manufacturing and defense industries. Its L&T Solar division designs and builds solar power plants with a range of capacities and has gained expertise in a variety of solar technologies. ARC Advisory Group recently had the opportunity to interview Mr. Milan Kumar, Head, Engineering & Services, L&T Solar, which applied LTI OPERA framework – a cloud IIoT platform – for operating and maintaining distributed industrial assets in 19 projects.
With few moving parts compared to other forms of power generation, a solar farm may appear to be easy to operate. But, those solar panels employ a complex set of physical and electrical characteristics for converting sunlight into electric power and transferring that power to the grid. This applies to both photovoltaic (PV) panels that convert sunlight directly into power, and concentrating solar power (CSP) systems that focus sunlight to heat water into steam that is usually sent to a turbine for power generation.
Achieving high performance in meeting service level agreement (SLA) requires data acquisition, monitoring KPIs, and managing of power output and quality. To achieve the needed visibility into current conditions and supervisory control, L&T Solar turned to sophisticated software from another division of parent company, LTI (formerly known as L&T Infotech).
L&T Solar designs and deploys a SCADA system for controlling and operating solar farms. This system obtains process parameters, alarms, and events, and other real-time data needed to effectively monitor and control the solar panels.
LTI’s OPERA gateway transfers the data from the SCADA system, and uploads it to the OPERA application in the cloud for analysis, reporting, and monitoring SLA metrics. L&T Solar engaged with LTI, and leveraged its IIoT technology skills to implement OPERA with cloud computing in multiple solar farms.
OPERA (Operational Analytics), a cloud-based platform, ingests, manages, analyzes, and visualizes the data. The typical application is a decision support system enabling real-time analysis that provides greater transparency for operating and maint/entity/view_sql”>aining a plant. OPERA provides a means to improve the efficiency and productivity of distributed assets with a fact-based, central view of performance.
OPERA identifies specific operational efficiencies like improvements in capacity utilization, forecasting plant generation, and efficient chemicals usage. It is integrated with an alert and service management tool, providing operators, plant managers, contractors and investors a unified view of operations. Typical applications include operations in solar power, water distribution, and wastewater treatment plants.
“OPERA for Solar Plant uncovers insights that allow us to engage in new ways and make decisions with confidence,” said Mr. Kumar. “Integration of information technology, IoT and PV paves the way for more efficient plant performance and lower cost of ownership throughout the power plant lifecycle.”
Mr. Kumar identified several key benefits that LTI OPERA can (and has) delivered in demanding solar plant environments:
Reduced project risk: OPERA comes with libraries and analytics that are easily customized for solar applications.
