SolarPower Europe’s former O&M and Asset Management Workstream has become the Lifecycle Quality Workstream to reflect the work that has the ambition to raise service quality across all lifecycle phases of solar power plants.
Europe is the continent with one of the largest and oldest fleet of solar plants at the same time being one of the biggest markets for solar worldwide. We need quality installation and long-term care for these assets to meet performance expectations. Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and Asset Management are key to the technical and economic performance of solar systems and plants.
EPC, O&M and Asset Management are standalone segments within the solar industry and it is widely acknowledged by all stakeholders that high-quality services mitigate potential risks, decrease the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) prices, and positively impact the return on investment (ROI).
The most recent initiative in our Lifecycle Quality Workstream to raise the standards of the solar industry is the development of the EPC Best Practice Guidelines, to be launched in November 2020. This will be done building on the vast knowledge accumulated in the past years during the development of the O&M Best Practice Guidelines and the Asset Management Best Practice Guidelines, creating a dialogue among the different lifecycle phases.
The workstream was initially created in 2015, in order to address the discrepancies between the quality of services provided by different O&M contractors. SolarPower Europe therefore developed the O&M Best Practices Guidelines to contribute to the improvement of the quality and standardisation of solar O&M. Version 4.0 of the O&M Best Practice Guidelines was launched in December 2019.
Asset management was included in the scope of the workstream in 2019, in light of the rapid professionalisation of solar investors and the globalization of solar investment portfolios, which puts increasing requirements on asset managers. As opposed to O&M service providers, asset managers deal with the commercial and financial management of a solar investment. To address the issue of quality in solar asset management, SolarPower Europe launched the first version of the Solar Asset Management Best Practices Guidelines, in December 2019.
Join SolarPower Europe’s Lifecycle Quality Workstream
“We often hear that, as long as the sun is shining, a solar PV power plant will require minimal management and operational effort. Today we can finally call this statement out for what it is: just a myth. The work of this workstream is testament to the discipline and highly skilled professionalism required to realise the technical and financial potential of solar photovoltaic plants.”
Following a year of intensive work, we are very proud to present this pioneering document, which involved over thirty leading solar experts including EPC providers, and also O&M contractors, asset owners, investors, digital solutions providers, technical advisors and banks from Europe and around the world.
Quality is something which goes through the entire process, and the earlier it is introduced in the process, the lower the overall system build and O&M costs. The links between the “E”, “P” and “C” stages, as well as the links between Development and EPC, and between EPC and O&M are described in our report in detail to minimise handover problems, which increase costs at later stages, and provide suitable risk management tools. In addition to the core phases of EPC, we covered dedicated chapters on important topics such as Risk Management, Environment, Health & Safety, Personnel & Training, Key Performance Indicators and the contractual framework for EPC projects.
SolarPower Europe has launched Version 2.0 of the Asset Management Best Practice Guidelines.
Building on a successful Version 1.0 published in December 2019, this update incorporates even more industry experience, delivering a forward-looking vision for the solar Asset Management segment.
The Solar Best Practices Mark is a suite of self-certification-based labels following the recommendations of the O&M Best Practice Guidelines and quality evaluation checklists for O&M, monitoring and aerial thermography services. The Mark’s purpose is to create more transparency in solar services and incentivise excellence by providing visibility to complying companies.
Visit solarbestpractices.com to apply for the Solar Best Practices Mark and to view best practice service providers in the Companies Directory.
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