GreenPowerMonitor’s web-based modular solution broadens the horizons of PV asset management
Renewable energy management requires robust data, efficient processing, and dynamic capabilities to monitor and analyze information. As the energy grid becomes increasingly dynamic, PV asset managers and service providers shift towards Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) solutions. With this, it is essential that we continue to guarantee robust data, deliver relevant metrics, and provide agile and dynamic tools that empower effective decision-making.
This article looks at GPM Horizon Solar for solar asset management, the main functionalities of the tool and how it fits with the operational requirements of your solar plant. By the conclusion, you’ll have an understanding of how the tool is ready to convert data into actionable information to empower real-time decision-making and efficient planning.
GPM Horizon Solar: a modular solution to meet your needs in solar asset management
According to the Energy Transition Outlook report 2024, solar energy currently generates 6% of our electricity, a figure projected to increase to 44% by 2050. Moreover, the same report forecasts that 72% of our electricity will be derived from solar and wind sources by that year.
As the green energy transition drives increasing demand for solar energy, the market grows not only in size, but also in complexity. In this light, the roles of asset owners, asset managers, and maintenance service providers evolve. This requires a greater diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and approaches to manage solar PV assets, and this ever-changing landscape of responsibilities requires us to constantly adapt to meet the demands for new and more complex needs.
In keeping with its tradition of innovation and market leadership, GreenPowerMonitor, a DNV company, launched GPM Horizon Solar: a single modular platform to empower asset owners and managers to shape the future of renewable energy management.
GPM Horizon Solar draws on GPM’s unparallelled expertise in solar energy management solutions, powered by of DNV’s broad and diverse team of domain experts, as well as close collaboration with select clients and stakeholders. The result is a robust and dynamic web-based solution, with modules tailored to optimize asset management, decision-making and operations at every level of the portfolio, and for every user.
Analyze the past, monitor the present, and predict the future
GPM Horizon Solar is a modular solar asset management software. Its design is specifically tailored to facilitate analysis, and monitoring and planning at every level, optimizing efficiency and return on investment (ROI).
The breadth and depth of GPM’s features ensures that asset managers always have reliable and up-to-date data, from detailed production measurements to the latest market trends. Every level of data and every module are interconnected, feeding into each other to empower decision-making, accountability and efficiency. Find out more in the GPM Horizon Solar brochure.
Modules and dashboards in GPM Horizon Solar
Modules in GPM Horizon Solar are comprehensive dashboards that allow you to view, analyze and assess data at a glance. Every widget is designed to allow users to carry out highly specific tasks with minimum effort, allowing you to focus your efforts on what is most important at each point of asset management in solar energy.
Overview module
The Overview module provides a snapshot of the current status and performance of your assets. At a glance, you can view the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your entire portfolio and individual sites. This lets you easily identify underperforming assets, as well as those that are operating at maximum capacity. With KPIs updating every two minutes, you can reduce times, investigate issues, and optimize the efficiency of your assets.
Monitor module
The Monitor module allows you to assess the performance of the assets in real time. The module displays the live and daily KPIs from the portfolio level down to the inverter one with contextual information to help you interpret every metric and identify underperforming assets.
Analysis module
The Analysis module provides insights on the performance, efficiency, and condition of every level of your portfolio (portfolio, plant and inverter level) over a period of time. The period of time can be easily selected on a five-minute basis up to one month. Horizon calculates the production and losses directly from the five-minute signals down to the string level and calculates the KPIs on-the-fly, summarizing the results in a waterfall chart. This allows the user to select any period of time and get the required information to easily identify the main underperformers and the root cause behind the loss. You can identify the factors affecting energy generation and compare metrics across your assets.
Forecast module
The Forecast module provides the weather forecast for the specific location of the assets and translates them into power production. This is done using the specific model for the asset under evaluation to provide an accurate estimation of the production. This module also allows you to make a comparison of different forecast providers and evaluates the accuracy against historical performance to optimize operational strategies and enhance overall efficiency in energy management.
Alarms module
The Alarms module offers complete visibility of your portfolio’s alarms, so you can easily manage, monitor, and configure custom alarms.
If an alarm remains active beyond the set duration, you’ll receive notifications and can swiftly create tickets to track issue resolution. These tickets automatically appear in the Tickets module for follow-up.
Alarms come with detailed information on severity and associated losses, and with filtering options, so you can focus on the most pressing issues.
Budgets module
The Budgets module allows you to track the performance of the portfolio against the budget from an energy production point of view. The module has several widgets embedded to ease the assessment of the performance such as monthly, cumulative or YTD views. Moreover, production data can be updated based on information from invoices, which can be attached, to account for reimbursements and curtailments.
Revenues module
The Revenues module leverages up-to-date data from market fluctuations and trends to help you evaluate the financial performance of your sites. The dashboard takes into consideration the specific technical and administrative configurations of each project and region, and converts KPIs into monetary units, with useful side-by-side comparisons that convert energy measurements directly into the currency of your choice.
Data Studio module
The Data Studio module renders highly detailed accounts of all performance data and available signals. You can create detailed queries to explore and retrieve data with different levels of detail. It also allows you to download the results in various formats (PNG, PDF, XLS, CSV), facilitating communication of insights to stakeholders and making it easy to use the data in other applications. Read more in the article Introducing Data Analytics in GPM Horizon for renewable monitoring.
Reports module
The Reports module is a flexible and intuitive solution for creating, customizing, and scheduling reports. It offers the following key features:
- Drag & drop: easily select visual elements, such as charts and tables, from anywhere in the platform, and include them directly in any report
- Customization: enhance clarity and contextualize information by adding and formatting visual elements to the presentation, based on the needs of your target audience.
- Templates: establish consistent presentations and formatting to standardize reports, ensuring a consistent look and feel.
- Automated generation and delivery: schedule the creation of standardized reports, and automatically send them as PDF files to a designated email distribution list. This lets you send up-to-date data to stakeholders, empowering them to make informed decisions based on the latest available data.
Tickets module
The Tickets module allows you to manage and keep track of tickets throughout their lifecycle. You can choose to view tickets in kanban or a table, assign tickets to another user, engage in discussions using the inner chat, attach documents, and associate tickets from alarms or create your own. The module has been designed to be fully customizable, allowing for several boards with as many categories as needed as well as customizable tickets and ticket templates, to ensure all the required information is filled in.
Logbook module
The Logbook Module allows you to customize the categorization of events and losses to calculate the required KPIs according to the corresponding contractual agreements in the KPIs module. Using an 80class model from IEC 61400261, it provides a detailed understanding of the operational status down to inverter level and losses down to the string level. Moreover, the logbook offers a record of all changes and modifications, providing traceability to the original data and allowing you to restore any previous version if required.
KPIs module
The KPIs module provides in-depth analysis and visualizations of the data stored in the logbook, ensuring the KPIs are calculated according to your needs and with full transparency of the data source. This module couples the categorization of the events with the measured losses to provide advanced waterfalls and evaluations of the portfolio or asset performance. Moreover, you can define custom availabilities formulas based on the categories of the events and their losses.
Conclusion: summary of updates and new features
Challenge, solution and value provided by GPM’s Horizon Solar solution
Every module in GPM Horizon Solar addresses a fundamental need for renewable asset managers. As renewable energy projects evolve and become more complex, relevant information also becomes more complex and interconnected. By combining robust data processing with cutting-edge analytics in a single cloud solution, the modular structure of GPM Horizon Solar makes it possible to convert data into actionable information, through a single platform where every tool feeds into the others to empower real-time decision-making and efficient planning.
What’s more, GPM Horizon Solar is scalable and tailor-made to adapt to many different scenarios. Our tiered subscription structure allows you to select the plan that best fits your project’s business goals and technical needs, ensuring that you have the most efficient resources at your disposal.
Do you want to meet us and talk to our renewable energy experts?
For more information on GPM Horizon Solar for solar asset management, fill in the form to request a meeting with our renewable energy experts who will be available to answer questions, provide demonstrations, and offer insights on best practices.
