If the life cycle of the photovoltaic power station is divided according to the investment and income, the initial investment in the site selection, design, equipment selection and construction of the power station only takes a few months. In the later stage, the benefits of the power station will be obtained through the operation and maintenance of the power station for more than 20 years. The importance of the operation and maintenance of the photovoltaic power station can be seen.
The latest data from the National Energy Administration shows that by the end of 2021, the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in China has exceeded 305GW. According to the prediction of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, under the multi wheel drive of double carbon, large base and whole county distribution, China’s photovoltaic installed capacity will increase at an annual rate of 83GW-99GW from 2022 to 2025.
The era of huge incremental superposition and comprehensive parity has begun. In the crevice of low profit in cost reduction and efficiency increase, power plant owners need not only high-quality power plants to “generate income”, but also high-quality and comprehensive power plant operation and maintenance services to “fix income”. Therefore, how to maximize the benefits of the power station is an urgent problem for the owners to consider.
Robust and reliable brand selection is crucial
High quality photovoltaic power plants are not listed as “1+1=2” equipment, and high quality operation and maintenance services are not simple “cleaning”. As the incremental market of photovoltaic power stations becomes clearer, huge amounts of capital rush into the downstream of photovoltaic power stations. New power stations and acquisition of high-quality power stations have become the “daily operation” of power stations.
However, with the influx of many enterprises into the photovoltaic market, the phenomenon of “mixed fish and dragon” is expected. In terms of station construction, problems such as unreasonable site selection, equipment mismatch, and conflict with the surrounding environment not only affect the power generation efficiency of the power station, but also directly extend the duration of the power station and increase the investment cost. In terms of operation and maintenance, problems such as the lack of unified standards, unprofessional operation and maintenance personnel, frequent equipment failures after the warranty period, and the closure of some key equipment manufacturers inevitably directly increase the difficulty of operation and maintenance of the power station, and ultimately cause huge economic losses to the owner of the power station.
Not only that, in recent years, China’s PV power station investors are experiencing a process of transformation from private enterprises to state-owned enterprises. From the perspective of power station transactions since 2018, the transaction scale of China’s PV power stations is rising by more than 2GW every year. PV power stations are putting forward higher requirements for O&M scheme suppliers with the role of transaction assets, such as power station evaluation capability, power station asset safety maintenance capability, etc.
Therefore, it is very important for power station owners to select a long-term stable, high-quality and reliable power station scheme provider that integrates the development, design, construction, operation and maintenance of photovoltaic power stations.
As an international leading photovoltaic manufacturer, Longji’s business scope and strategic partners almost cover the entire photovoltaic industry chain, and its brand strength and technical strength are beyond doubt. As an important layout of Longji Shares in photovoltaic power stations, Longji Clean Energy has been committed to the design, development, project delivery and operation and maintenance of photovoltaic power stations since 2014, with rich experience in power stations and huge data accumulation. Backed by Longji Shares, Longji Clean Energy can not only provide long-term and stable operation and maintenance services for the 25 year long life cycle of photovoltaic power stations, but also provide technical guidance and support for the owners of power stations by virtue of Longji Shares’ leading technology in the component equipment sector, strong equipment supply chain system and high reliability photovoltaic power station building capabilities.
“At present, although many operation and maintenance personnel in the market have a working background in the power industry, they do not have a deep understanding of the operation and maintenance of the photovoltaic industry. The advantage of Longji Clean Energy is that they have a more thorough understanding of the system integration of photovoltaic power stations. In addition, we have built and owned photovoltaic power stations for a long time, and we can also give more suggestions and technical support to the owners in the construction, operation and maintenance, and technical transformation of photovoltaic power stations.” Li Zhuangdong, deputy general manager of Longji Clean Energy, said. It is reported that the cumulative scale of Longji Clean Energy Operation and Maintenance Power Station has exceeded 3GW.
Full life cycle: from high standard construction to high-quality operation and maintenance
At present, the operation and maintenance services in the industry mainly focus on the operation monitoring, fault detection and equipment maintenance management within 5 years after the PV power station is connected to the grid. However, from the perspective of Longji Clean Energy, high-quality and efficient operation and maintenance services should run through the entire life cycle of the photovoltaic power station to maximize the power generation efficiency of the photovoltaic power station.
“The operation and maintenance concept of Longji Clean Energy is to make the power station less and less ill during the whole operation period through the high standard construction in the construction stage of photovoltaic power station and the high-quality operation and maintenance in the operation and maintenance stage.” According to Li Zhuangdong, deputy general manager of Longji Clean Energy, the full life cycle operation and maintenance plan of Longji Clean Energy PV Power Station was introduced in the design and construction stage of the power station. During the early stage of power station construction, based on the complete “post station evaluation system”, optimization suggestions for power station construction and in-depth power station physical examination before grid connection were proposed; During the later operation of the power station, the power station will be managed comprehensively, meticulously, digitally and intelligently through a variety of operation and maintenance means such as system efficiency test, issuance of personalized power station evaluation report, remote big data monitoring of production management platform, UAV patrol inspection and cleaning, equipment status evaluation and maintenance.
Taking the physical examination of the deep power station before grid connection as an example, at present, the inspection of the DC side equipment of the power station in the industry is mainly routine sampling inspection, and the inspection experiment of the AC side equipment is coordinated by the construction party, which is very likely to have hidden trouble, and there are many problems after the power station is put into operation. Longji Clean Energy carries out a refined physical examination of all components of the whole power station from the components to the incoming line bay at the grid side before the power station is connected to the grid, and completes defect elimination before putting into operation, which can effectively prevent the power station from being put into operation with problems and ensure that the equipment availability of the power station is at least 99.5% after it is put into operation.
After grid connection, the condition based maintenance adopts the maintenance management mode of predictive maintenance (i.e. “prevention of disease”). The length of the maintenance cycle of various types of equipment in the power station depends on the operating state of the equipment. Give full play to the potential of the equipment, carry out maintenance according to the actual situation, formulate appropriate ordering cycle and reserve of spare parts, shorten the maintenance time and save maintenance costs, We can achieve the best results with the lowest investment.
According to Li Zhuangdong, at the beginning of June 2021, Longji Clean Energy began to operate and maintain Datong Shenzhen Europe 110kV PV Power Station. It mainly evaluated the health of Datong Shenzhen Europe Power Station from five dimensions, including photovoltaic system performance evaluation, equipment performance evaluation, equipment safety evaluation, project quality evaluation and production and operation evaluation. Aiming at the problems found in the physical examination, it formulated targeted solutions to steadily improve the power generation of the power station. Since June, the net income of the “Double Rules” assessment of the power grid has been positive for five consecutive months, and the annual generation target of the year has been achieved two months in advance. In November of the same year, the completion rate of the power generation target of the power station reached 127%, and the operation and maintenance service of Longji Clean Energy Power Station was highly recognized and praised by the owner.
“The life cycle of the photovoltaic power station is 25 years. What we should do is not only to build the power station and hand it over to the customer, but also to ensure that the overall revenue of the power station in the whole life cycle can meet the customer’s expectations after it is handed over to the customer.” Li Zhuangdong said.
With the progress of technology, the development of any industry cannot escape round after round of market reshuffle. Only starting from the whole life cycle of the power station, considering the investment and income comprehensively, and selecting stable and reliable partners can the owners of photovoltaic power station calmly meet the storms and rainbows of the new era.
