Amsterdam, 29 January 2014 – Photon EnergyOperations, a division of global lifecycle-oriented power solutionsprovider Photon Energy, is expanding its international operations& maintenance portfolio by signing maintenance contracts forSatcon inverters at power plants in Belgium. The company alreadyprovides full O&M services for a 3 MWp rooftop powerplant near Brussels and is active in six other countriesacross two continents.
The future for the Belgian PV sector has been described ascloudy in the European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s Globalmarket outlook for 2013-2017. “With a changing regulatoryenvironment and reduced support for all PV segments in Belgium weare sure that investors will value our Uptime and PerformanceGuarantees and the fact, that power plants in our care show anuptime of more than 99% on average”, says CEO GeorgHotar.
“We are also bringing our NPVmax – strategy to the Belgianmarket with which we are helping power plant owners to maximise theNet Present Value of their investments”, explainsGeorg Hotar, CEO of Photon Energy. “With ourfull operations & maintenance services we are aiming atfundamentally de-risking PV power plants”, he adds.
The central inverters are now in the hands of former key Satconengineers who between them have commissioned over 130 MWp of Satconinverters all over Europe. After the former manufacturer closedshop, Photon Energy Operations moved quickly and secured both keypersonnel and access to spare parts. “We are convinced that forinvestors, whose power plants run on Satcon-produced centralinverters, Photon Energy Operations is the logical choice forO&M services”, says Georg Hotar, CEO of PhotonEnergy. “Who else would you rather have taking care ofyour inverters than the people who actually installed them and knowthen inside out?” Hotar adds.
“If central inverters are not given regular check-ups andpreventive maintenance, small failures can cause a domino effectthat can lead to severe damage”, explains Pavel Laurinec,Technical Manager Central Inverters at Photon Energy Operations.“Even a tiny issue such as a dirty filter can trigger furtherproblems that lead to higher operating temperatures and prematurefailure of critical components resulting in extensivedowntime”, Laurinec elaborates. „In case an inverter doesrequire corrective maintenance, we have access to all crucial spareparts and the knowledge to get it up and running as quickly aspossible”.
Jan Krcmar
T +420 773 032 182
E jan.krcmar@photonenergy.com
Photon Energy Operations provides fully integrated monitoringand O&M services for PV power plants in Germany, Italy, CentralEurope, Australia and a growing number of other countries. Thecompany currently has over 60 MWp under management and its powerplants operate almost entirely with an uptime above 99%, thanks toits advanced monitoring and management system. Photon EnergyOperations also offers revenue enhancement services, uptime &performance guarantees and comprehensive insurance solutions. Thecompany is part of Photon Energy Group, a global solar powersolutions and services company based in the Netherlands.