PV Magazine Interviews Eric Daniel about QOS Energy’s Monitoring Solutions for Long-term Performance
24 November 2017
Eric Daniel, Head of India at QOS Energy, speaks to pv magazine about his views on the Indian market, specifically how a fully digitalized solar O&M and asset management helps enhance asset profitability.
Interview by Sraisth | Solar Technology Expert for PV Magazine India
PV Magazine – You decided to enter the Indian market about 18 months ago. What is shaping the evolution of the Indian market today?
Eric Daniel – The Indian market is growing very fast, and we see a lot of potential. We meet clients who own several hundred plants and GW. They have huge development ambitions in India and other continents. The focus is today on development – EPC & cost-oriented – but things are moving.
Indian Developers, EPCs & Asset Managers understand the critical importance of monitoring & maintenance solutions to sustain long-term performance. Indeed, plants are built within three years but will be operating for more than 20 years.
PV Magazine – In which market segments is QOS Energy mostly active today?
Eric Daniel – Our cloud platform is capable of monitoring, analyzing and managing any renewable plant, be it solar, wind, storage, bio or hydro. We are very active in the solar utility-scale and solar rooftop markets in India. Each market has its specific needs. […]
Most utility-scale operators are now seeking Data Science and Machine Learning Technologies to help them manage their portfolio, optimize processes and increase returns. Indian renewable utilities have genuinely embraced these technologies because they have understood its value, for example in energy forecast applications. Predicting production for the future can be challenging as the plants are more and more complex, besides accounting for planned or unplanned maintenance. Data Science and Machine learning technologies are here to help operators get an accurate forecast by learning from the past data. QOS Energy uses the latest technologies, such as Data Science and Machine Learning, to transform raw datasets into insightful decision-making.
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“Very few companies can genuinely collect and analyze data from any plant in a reliable, quick and efficient manner without retrofitting expensive data acquisition systems or SCADA. Even fewer companies monitor in the same portal the performance of trackers or storage plants. ”
QOS Energy continually invests in developing and maintaining more than 250 communication methods, thus ensuring full compatibility with any plant and data acquisition system.
“Acquiring data is only the first step of the process to create powerful analytics and visualization enabling clients to intervene in real-time on performance issue for a plant situation in the north or south of India. Then come data cleaning, categorization, storage, management, and visualization. A key performance indicator needs to display instantly for immediate action in case of a performance issue. ”
Managing data for an asset owner or service provider is an important responsibility. Raw or source data cannot be lost or altered in any way. It requires the highest level of data accuracy, quality, security and reliability using a very efficient and scalable data acquisition and management methods. QOS Energy has an extensive experience in this complicated process, rendering complex data into real-time analytics to power intelligent decisions.
Read full interview on PV magazine
