No two companies are alike: every organization has its own mix of business objectives, portfolio assets, partner ecosystems, and internal workflows. To provide meaningful help with remote operations, technology products and services must be flexible to adapt to the specific needs and internal processes of each unique client. One example is CalCom, specialists in solar energy solutions for agricultural applications. While most PV assets are clustered around communities and facilities where energy is used, much of the CalCom fleet is dispersed in remote rural locations. Truck rolls to these sites are uncommonly expensive, so CalCom has invested in developing an effective model for remote operations.
For CalCom, remote diagnostics is critically important. You don’t want to drive all the way out to a rural system with the wrong spare part. To get the best possible understanding of device status without boots on the ground, CalCom needs the ability to see fault codes and other direct data from their string inverters. CalCom additionally asked for a communications platform to support remote control capabilities, along with granular views of device performance to locate trouble areas before the technician arrives on site.
AlsoEnergy delivered a custom solution to meet CalCom’s requests. We worked with the inverter manufacturer to capture and display direct data from string inverters in the PowerTrack Platform, tying that information to a meaningful system of customized performance alarms. Our development team then created custom displays and alarm configurations personalized for operators and portfolio asset managers, including string inverter maps to remotely pinpoint underperforming devices. “AlsoEnergy helps us deliver a higher quality of service at a competitive price point” says Travis Somers, VP of Asset Management & Operations at CalCom.