EN 
PT_BR 
O O&M service (Operation and Maintenance) of photovoltaic plants is essential for any customer. This is what Leandro Figueiredo, Operations and Maintenance manager at Siemens Energy said.
The topic was debated during the second day of the Connect Channel, congress held by Solar Channel, which is being carried out in UNICAMP Convention Center (Campinas State University).
During the lecture, which started at around 10:30 am, the specialist spoke about vegetation suppression and mechanized suppression, new technologies and software. "I.e, everything involving O&M”.
“It is essential that maintenance is carried out, that there is a quality operation to guarantee project performance indicators and performance ratio availability so that a monthly delivery can be made, thus guaranteeing the owner’s entire revenue”, he highlighted.
Grounding and SPDA
After Figueiredo's talk, a panel discussion was held with the presence of Paulo Edmundo Freire, professor of the Solar Canal Grounding Course and managing partner of Paiol Engenharia, Victor Soares, engineer at JA Solar, and Mauro Sirtoli, Energy manager Renewables at Weidmueller.
Freire addressed the importance of the grounding system and lightning protection for the good performance of a solar plant. “Yesterday, in the lecture on climate change, Vitor Hassan, head of energy at Grupo Climatempo, spoke about the expectation of an increase in temperature, and with that there is also the expectation of an increase in lightning strikes”.
“So, the issue of grounding and protection against lightning is increasingly important in this global warming scenario. Grounding is the earth reference for the entire system being implemented. Both the operation of the boards and inverters, they all have to have a reference to earth, and grounding provides this reference”, he pointed out.
The professor also commented that when talking about protection against lightning, it is necessary to think that the photovoltaic plant is an installation open to the weather, with a large area, therefore with a very high level of exposure to rays that requires a series of care, as they are electronic equipment.
“In this case, a series of precautions are needed to reduce the vulnerability of the installation to lightning, as it is not possible to eliminate them. There is no 100% protection against lightning, but we are able to greatly reduce damage events when lightning strikes,” he said.
Opex and good practices
Throughout the event, Sirtoli also highlighted the importance of photovoltaic plants not only looking at CAPEX, but also at OPEX – which is what will often lead to a reduction in profitability in the long term.
“We tried to measure this and show how we can make it viable and give due importance to O&M when closing a project”, he concluded.
Soares focused mainly on the correct use of the equipment, in the case of photovoltaic modules, and on creating a good grounding project. “Talking about equipment compatibility is also essential. Everyone needs to be speaking the same 'language', in a way.”
“Good practices are essential for different projects, whether DG (distributed generation) or utility-scale. These tips are very important to take into consideration for any type of project, from development to implementation”, concluded the JA Solar engineer.
