What is a consultancy?

In general, a consultant is one who, in an impartial manner, provides technical and objective assistance in relation to the strategies, structures, management and operation of a given organization in the pursuit of its results. Consulting can be applied to any sector, ranging from consultancy and implementation.

For the consultancy service to be well executed, the consultant must have a well-defined “knowledge advantage”, which is having the specialization that the contractor needs.

What is a consultancy in the solar sector?

The consultancy in solar scope can be applied in several aspects, such as choosing a installation company, commissioning, project analysis, among others.

In large systems, the initial investment usually exceeds the mark of millions of reais, therefore, to obtain an accurate project and mitigate operational failures, an external perspective with a team specialized in each sector is of great value for the success of the project. investment.

Here we will give a brief explanation of three consultancy services that can be applied in solar scope, remembering that the consultancy can be applied to all parts involving photovoltaic solar energy.

Choosing the installing company

When we talk about installing photovoltaic solar systems, it is common to come across the terms “Integrators” and “EPCists”.

Integrators are the companies that capture customers and take care of all aspects that derive from a photovoltaic generator, such as procedures with the energy distributor, equipment purchases, projects, installations and monitoring of the system after its installation. They generally provide a “Turn Key” or “turnkey” proposal, where the client does not have to worry about any stage of the system implementation process, besides, of course, the capital investment.

The word EPC comes from “Engineering, Procurement and Construction”, which translated means “Engineering, acquisition and construction”, where unlike the integrator, it normally does not do customer acquisition or post-installation monitoring, focusing only on projects, acquisitions and construction.

However, the majority of integrators also consider themselves EPCists, for carrying out both types of work.

A consultancy that aims to choose an integrator or an epcist for investors, or anyone who has mastery of the initial capital, needs to analyze some aspects of the company, such as the technical staff, experience in projects, recommendations, relationship with distributors , among others.

Commissioning

In the solar sector, we currently have a standard that governs commissioning of photovoltaic solar systems connected to the grid, is ABNT NBR 16274 – Photovoltaic systems connected to the grid – Minimum requirements for documentation, commissioning tests, inspection and performance evaluation.

The consultancy that seeks to commission a system must be based on the governing standard to accurately apply the necessary analyzes, in addition to relying on the experience of the consultants to evaluate the good engineering practices that were applied in the design and execution of the project. system.

Project analysis

In a conventional photovoltaic generator project, we can divide it into three parts, namely:

• Low tension
• Medium voltage
• Grounding and SPDA

All parts have their relative complexity, however, it is not uncommon to find projects being carried out without taking into account the parameters governed by sector standards or carried out by untrained professionals, therefore, when consultancy is carried out with the aim of analyzing project, seeks to verify whether all the principles of calculations and choice of components were followed in a cohesive way, in order to obtain the best performance of the system.

Conclusion

Consulting in the solar sector is essential for those who want assertive execution in their system, mainly because these investments are often high. With the consultancy's external perspective, decision-making becomes more solid as it is supported by the technical staff of the consultancy team, thus validating or not the information from the contracting company. In addition, the consultancy can offer specific guidance for dealing with solar energy events, ensuring a more comprehensive approach prepared for possible challenges. Check out some of the services provided by Canal Solar here.