18 October 2012

First Solar launches power plant operations center

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA, which manufactures thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) as well as providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, has launched a new global operations center, a centralized monitoring and control center where power plants in First Solar's operations and maintenance (O&M) program can be monitored, operated and connected to utility and customer networks.

Picture: Inside First Solar's new global operations center, where power plants can be remotely monitored, operated and connected to utility and customer networks.

Located in Mesa, AZ, USA, the second-generation center is fully compliant with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards and is designed to be scalable to accommodate the global fleet of PV power plants in First Solar's O&M program. First Solar currently operates 14 customer plants with 460 megawatts (MW) of peak generating capacity, which will increase to 23 plants with 850 MW of capacity by year-end and 27 plants with 2,200 MW of capacity in 2013.

The center collects and processes a wide range of real-time power plant data, including electrical performance, equipment status and weather data, which are monitored and analyzed against key performance and operational parameters. Automated data analysis detects issues in the plants and automatically dispatches maintenance crews to resolve them, and proprietary algorithms developed using years of O&M data enable the system to predict potential issues and schedule preventive maintenance before a problem occurs, says the firm.

A key feature of First Solar's power plant design is its plant controls, which manage grid reliability and stability and can be controlled remotely from the operations center. Features include ramp-rate control, which limits how fast a power plant's output increases or decreases in order to minimize grid disruption; ride-through capability, which enables a power plant to operate through faults and other grid disturbances; active power control, which can be used to modulate power output; and frequency droop control, which enables a power plant to provide critical grid support when grid frequency is changing.

"Our years of experience and investment have enabled us to build a proprietary system that allows us to optimize our customers' power plants to produce the maximum amount of energy and revenue under their power purchase agreements while minimizing costs and risk," said Bob Callery, vice president of O&M. "The vast quantity of data we gather also gives us invaluable insight into the real-word performance of our products and supports the continuous improvement of our power plants."

Tags: First Solar CdTe

Visit: www.firstsolar.com