Repowering & Revamping

The Alectris team serves plant owners and operators with solar PV asset repowering and revamping services.

Repowering solar plants are designed to increase the performance and energy yield of the plant. Solar PV plant repowering is applied to existing plants and can be utilized for extending the life of new plants at the end of their initial design life, projected at about 20 to 25 years.

Revamping applies to distressed PV plants, those underperforming to their original specifications.

In both cases, Alectris has earned a reputation of being centered on customer care, bringing an extensive solar experience to realize high performing solar assets.

Alectris has a demonstrated track record in restoring and exceeding plant energy generation by:

 

  • Initial project analysis and recommendations
  • Careful and timely execution of projects with attention to the detail
  • Maintenance and technological upgrading to a balance of system components

A Look at Representative Results for Revamping Services

Biaxial Tracker Plants

 

Alectris has developed a specialization in correcting distressed biaxial ground mount tracking systems. Biaxial solar photovoltaic (PV) trackers are technically complex and more difficult to operate and maintain than fixed tracker plants.

Biaxial solar plants can face several serious issues affecting their operation and thus not perform according to the client’s expectations:

  • Severely misaligned trackers
  • Mechanical problems causing continuous breakdowns
  • Control software not designed and implemented to ensure optimum sun tracking
  • Lack of monitoring leading to substantial downtime as checks on operation had to perform manually through site visits

The solutions

 

Typically, the Alectris team will diagnose, propose solutions and then engineer and implement the solutions to transform underperforming, distressed plants into sites optimized for performance output through safety control, achievement of full manageability and integration into our proprietary Solar ERP – ACTIS ERP software.

Alectris will study and propose an action plan generally along the following parameters:

 

  • An intermediate solution to keep the trackers running at the maximum of their capabilities
  • While studying in detail the deficiencies of the construction and control software in order to keep the maximum possible of the existing hardware to minimize costs

Consistently the Alectris team is able to revamp biaxial tracker plants and create strong results including:

 

  • Additional generated energy up to 20-25% even during the winter period
    Implementation of the tested solution within short deployment schedules
  • Estimated payback period of the intervention within 60 days, even during winter days
  • Proper control and monitoring by integrating the tracker control system software into the Alectris proprietary PV management software, ACTIS ERP, thus ensuring future problems are immediately identified and cured

Alectris Solar PV Plant Repowering and Revamping Services

 

Solar plant repowering and revamping services are tailored to the needs of the solar asset owner/operator. Alectris has a demonstrated track record in restoring and exceeding plant energy generation using typically these services:

  • Initial project analysis and recommendations
  • Significant maintenance and technological upgrading, which may include, but is not limited to:
      • Review and correction of displaced photovoltaic modules
      • Replacement, removal and reinstallation of the main components including modules and inverters
      • Eventual modification of the distribution system in the energy/ grid network
      • Eventual changing the system connection point to the grid network
  • Upgrades to the existing solar plant can typically include:
  • Maintenance and technological upgrading to the balance of system components can typically include:
      • Correction to the displacement of inverters and smaller electrical components
      • Replacement, removal or re-installation of smaller electrical components if the operation does not cause changes in the distribution system in the power grid produced by the plant
      • Corrections to supporting structures of the modules or building structures on which the plant has been installed
      • Corrections to the electrical configuration of the plant: installation of the regenerator, optimizer or similar new devices or reshuffle of the plant electrical set up.