Nomad Electric is a Polish provider of comprehensive EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) and O&M (Operations and Maintenance) services for large-scale solar farms. The company, with headquarters in Warsaw, is currently expanding to Portugal, Romania, and Italy.
To manage the solar parks efficiently and ensure their proper operation, Nomad launched a new high-tech monitoring center, located in Łódź, the city in the central part of Poland. This monitoring center is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and software technologies.
O&M contracts for utility-scale PV systems of over 800 MW
So far Nomad Electric has concluded O&M contracts for the technical support of utility-scale PV systems with a total capacity of over 800 MW. The company has the ambition to reach at least 1GW in the coming months. The recently opened monitoring center helps engineers to ensure the high performance of managed solar parks.
The heart of the monitoring center is the high-resolution video wall, allowing for the efficient display of various modes of operation, such as ongoing site interventions, alarms, and planned site checks. The video wall system automatically handles different layouts of all connected SCADA and other IT applications. The graphical processor used in the center has been designed to deliver smooth frame rates at high resolutions up to 8K, simultaneously on multiple screens.
An ergonomic workplace for engineers was a very important factor taken into consideration during the design phase of the project, as work in the control rooms is fast-paced and requires constant concentration and attention from the staff.
On the software side, monitoring center engineers use several key applications to efficiently track sites performance and manage reactive and preventive maintenance tasks.
SCADA system main tool
The main tool is the SCADA system. Nomad Electric is open to using any SCADA provided by the investor, but has also developed a proprietary industrial-grade solution, “Nomad NX”. NX handles all standard tasks, such as real-time energy production and KPIs monitoring, or instantaneous alarm generation in case of solar farm malfunction. Other features of the system include full remote control of the facility, active and reactive power management, or trackers control.
The monitoring center staff also uses the Field Service Management platform to digitalize and automate all in-field processes, such as preventive, reactive, or repair assignments. The system allows users to generate, check status, and quickly create final reports for all the tasks performed by service engineers.
The integrated mobile app enables monitoring of the location of all service engineers and checking the real-time progress of all field activities. All the processes are designed according to industry best practices, such as the O&M Guideline developed by SolarPower Europe, the requirements of investors, and ISO standards.
Artificial intelligence – data driven maintenance
Other important applications include, but are not limited to, CCTV monitoring software, weather status and forecast tools, and a warehouse management system for spare parts storage.
Collected data are automatically analysed by algorithms to detect and prioritize deviations such as productivity drop or lower performance vs. KPIs. This enables a quick response and resolution of potential problems, and as a result, helps to minimize downtimes and to maximize energy generation.
In the coming months, Nomad plans to complete other high-tech projects, mainly focused on data-driven predictive maintenance, and integration of data from all sources to achieve a “360 solar park view”. (hcn)
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