Training
Training
Most of the issues with current thermal scanning best practices are due to the fact that many O&M’s rely on third party data collection. Not only does this mean assets are not inspected as often as they should be but it also completely eliminates an incredibly useful piece of technology for technicians to have at there disposal. Drone technology has advanced a lot over the past few years. A technician with proper training and knowledge can quickly pickup the inspection method and immediately start cutting down
Technician training
Provide your technicians with the tools, skills, and operational intelligence required to optimize asset performance, reduce downtime, and maximize ROI.
Operations training
Equip operations staff with a strong foundation in thermal scanning theory to support accurate assessments and decision making.
Safety
Solar arrays present unique safety and operational challenges. Well trained technicians can safely and efficiently assess array health, identify ground faults, and return assets to service while keeping themselves and others safe.
General inspection training
Unlock broader insight across solar assets through drone based inspections. Substations, overhead lines, and site grounds can be assessed quickly and effectively by trained technicians.
Increase technician efficiency
Real world use case
Take this real world example of how an untrained technician would fair against a drone equipped/trained technician while trying to bring an inverter back online after a ground fault.
Trained technician
Untrained technician
1. Inverter trips offline due to a ground fault, SCADA notifies operating center, operating center dispatches technician.
1. Inverter trips offline due to a ground fault, SCADA notifies operating center, operating center dispatches technician.
2. Technician arrives on site, deploys drone immediately and begins scanning effected array from the safety of service vehicle.
2. Technician arrives on site, starts performing manual tests at every combiner box to hone in on ground fault. Exposes themselves to hazardous energy sources in an irregular state.
3. Technician quickly spots string producing current while inverter is offline (ground fault). Takes photos and notes string location. Lands drone and begins to move directly to effected string.
3. Technician is still slowly walking from combiner to combiner looking for signs of ground fault. Eventually finds anomalous voltage reading in combiner box. Begins isolating strings to narrow down the issue.
4. Technician arrives at effected string and sees the connector has been pulled open by sheep and is shorting to rack. Safely fixes connector and resets inverter GFDI. Inverter back online less than 30 minutes after technician arrival.
4. Technician eventually finds string with anomalous voltage reading. Walks down row and finds connector has been pulled open by sheep and is shorting to rack. Safely fixes connector and resets inverter GFDI. Inverter back online potentially hours after technician arrival.
Contact
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