ScanPro’s Thermal Imaging service has the ability to quickly identify high resistive electrical defects, poor connections, faulty equipment, worn and corroded or improperly made electrical terminations. This is a particularly valuable tool to have, because photovoltaic solar farms can become very dangerous places with high DC voltages and high current exposure.
Value delivered
Reduce manpower
ScanPro identified 60% more faults then O&M ground crews can achieve. This value is performed at a lower cost, with higher accuracy then all “boots on the ground” methods can provide.
Critical Performance
Critical performance data captured and delivered within 14 days of site assessment.
Identify Problems
A fusion of visual mapping and geo-referenced string and tracker numbering allows repair teams to easily identify problem areas.
Australia Wide
Over 95% of Australia’s utility scale PV sites can benefit from ScanPro’s aerial thermographic data.
Save money
The additional energy yields gained through an aerial IR assessment will cover the cost to provide the service. This should be comfortably recouped within 3 months of an optimized asset.
One of the most important reasons why regular condition monitoring is required around utility scale solar is because at certain points in the installation it can become impossible to isolate the source of supply in the event of failure. We can’t turn the sun off!
It is important to understand the immense amount of energy that can be produced by utility scale solar farms. If a major breakdown in insulation does occur, sometimes the only solution is to allow the circuit itself to burn through until an open circuit situation occurs. Obviously, no PV operator wants to endure a situation like this and that is why continuous predictive and preventative maintenance is imperative.
The best way to address predictive and preventative requirements that will strengthen PV infrastructure and make it more resilient is to start with regularly spaced thermography. Thermal surveys of all balance of system (BOS) items and PV modules can be performed. The main locations where PV system failure occurs is at the cable terminations, not manufactured equipment. The vast majority of electrical terminations are out in the field at the source of supply where you have ground vegetation and constantly fluctuating weather conditions along with high UV exposure. The ever changing environmental influences are what breaks down the systems strength and integrity over time
The average 100MW solar farm with 300,000 to 400,000 PV modules can have over 1 million terminations in them. This means having good quality connectors that have been well terminated is essential for a robust working life.
Having access to an accurate map of where these defects are located is also essential. The disorientating repetitive nature of the solar farm design can cause mistakes to be made if access to accurate mapping is not integrated into thermal reports and workflows.
ScanPro are skilled at supplying this form of presentation. We can see the value accurate navigation capabilities provides our clients and our aim is to reduce any wasted time where possible.
ScanPro’s thermography services comply with all aspects of IEC TS 62446-3 and Australian Standards
At ScanPro can inspect:
- DC Combiner boxes
- Photovoltaic modules
- MC4 Connectors
- DC wiring harness
- Insulated pierced connectors (IPC)
- Inverter Stations – String and Central
- Electrical switchboards
- High Voltage switchboards
The value Aerial Thermography delivers to our clients:
- Faulty circuit breakers
- Melting or disfigurement
- Faulty switching apparatus
- Unbalanced loads
- Raised levels of heat operating outside of design parameters
- Flora or Fauna ingress
- Loose connections
- Oxidisation
- Moisture ingress
- Poor connections
- Unsealed penetrations
- Blown fuse or CB’s
- Missing labels
- High resistive joints
- Incorrect rated equipment
- MC4 connections
- Visual damage
There are many benefits from undertaking a full thermographic system scan at your facility:
- An increased safety to the site.
- De-risk your PV system from outages and system failure
- Increased system output
- Compliance to regulatory requirements
- Compliance to contractual obligations
- Removal of potential threats to fire onsite
- Reduction in sections going offline
- Increased site health
- Potentially reduce insurance policy costs
- Track system degradation – know where the areas of concern are
- Professional documentation – pdf and digital cloud portal style reporting
- Image based analysis creates easy to review situation over numbers based analysis
Deliver confidence, build credibility and support investment.
