A solar plant is a wonderful thing.
It converts sunlight into electricity, and after about five years the energy that went into manufacturing the system’s components - like panels, inverters, and batteries - will have been matched or outweighed by the plant’s output. From there on, the energy produced is essentially “free,” if the system is properly maintained.
Imagine a scenario where a solar plant trips offline and no one notices because the grid is covering the load. Now, it’s not generating any energy or saving any money and the owner is none the wiser.
It’s a worst-case scenario and it’s not uncommon. Although solar plants are low-maintenance by design, that doesn’t mean they don’t need some key checks and oversight to ensure everything runs as it should. Proper maintenance gives owners the peace of mind that their investment will perform financially and technically for years to come.
This is where operations and maintenance (O&M) services are crucial.
A reliable O&M contractor will keep a watchful digital eye on the solar plant, quickly respond to any faults, and have the know-how to fix them in a fast and cost-effective way. Many contractors even offer performance guarantees that hold them financially accountable if the system underperforms.
O&M services fall into two main categories: preventative maintenance and reactive maintenance. Both are essential for a strong maintenance strategy.
Preventative maintenance includes continuous digital monitoring, regular inspections, thermal scans of panels and connections, updating inverter firmware, and cleaning inverter cooling fans. Reactive maintenance covers things like responding to site outages, inverter trips, or string faults. The goal of preventative work is to catch issues before they become bigger, more expensive problems that need reactive fixes.
At Decentral Energy, we have a team of specialists dedicated to the O&M of solar and battery systems. With years of experience and a proactive approach, we ensure our customers’ solar plants perform exactly as designed.
