U.S. O&M budgets need more funds, says SPI session
This article originally appeared in Solar Power World Magazine.
During the educational session “Reports from the Field: O&M Challenges from Residential, Commercial and Utility Scale Leaders” at Solar Power International 2015, the common issue shared between panelists and audience members was that there is not enough money budgeted for operations and maintenance on U.S. solar projects.
Session presenters David Blittersdorf (President /CEO, AllEarth Renewables), Vassilis Papaeconomou (Managing Director, Alectris) and Joe Kastner (Chief Operating Officer, Radian Generation).
“The first three years [of an operating solar array] are generally peaceful,” said panelist Vassilis Papaeconomou, managing director of Alectris. “Due to the fact that maintenance is underestimated, budgets for later years are very small.”
Most maintenance tasks pop up further down the line, when budgets are even thinner. Joe Kastner, COO at Radian Generation, found that the large majority of maintenance calls is for inverters, and if the manufacturer is out of business, O&M costs can be even higher. That’s why Kastner said contingency plans must be in place, because warranties and guarantees aren’t enough. Asking the customer, “How fast do I need to respond to problems?”, helps the asset manager/O&M provider plan for what verifies the cost of a truck-roll.
Papaeconomou said while the United States underestimates O&M costs, Europe overestimates and has a healthy market.
“The U.S. O&M market is skin and bones,” he said. That needs to change with the influx of projects coming online and eventually needing maintenance in later years.
