South Africa has the continent’s most developed solar PV market. As its fleet of power plants age, proper “health care” is becoming an increasingly important aspect when looking to consistently meet performance expectations. 

Our joint South African-European O&M taskforce was launched in April 2021, assembling 39 leading solar experts from South Africa and Europe. These guidelines reflect the market and business conditions in South Africa, while supporting South African solar stakeholders in improving the quality of their O&M segment. 

This document is aimed at O&M service providers, as well as other parties involved in the operation of solar power plants, such as owners and investors, lenders, technical advisors, and data-related service providers. It will help establish common standards and increase transparency in the sector. 

It is also worth noting that solar O&M is especially value intensive as a segment, supporting many local jobs, and driving important solar innovations, notably in the field of digitalisation.

Key topics:

• Environment, health and safety
• personnel & training, social embeddedness
• technical asset management
• Power plant operation
• power plant maintenance
• revamping and repowering
• spare parts management 
• data and monitoring requirements
• key performance indicators
• contractual framework
• innovations and trends
• O&M for standalone solar installations with storage