Best Practices for Operation and Maintenance of ...

1 NREL is a national laboratory of the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 Technical Report NREL/TP-7A40-73822 December 2018 Best Practices for Operation and Maintenance of Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Systems; 3rd Edition National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, SunSpec Alliance, and the SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP) PV O&M Best Practices Working Group NREL is a national laboratory of the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at Contract No.

2 DE-AC36-08GO28308 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 15013 Denver West Parkway Golden, CO 80401 303-275-3000 Technical Report NREL/TP-7A40-73822 December 2018 Best Practices for Operation and Maintenance of Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Systems; 3rd Edition National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, SunSpec Alliance, and the SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP) PV O&M Best Practices Working Group Suggested Citation National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, SunSpec Alliance, and the SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP) PV O&M Best Practices Working Group.

3 2018. Best Practices for Operation and Maintenance of Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Systems; 3rd Edition. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-7A40-73822. NOTICE This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and SuNLaMP Agreement views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the Government.

4 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at Department of Energy (DOE) reports produced after 1991 and a growing number of pre-1991 documents are available free via Cover Photos by Dennis Schroeder: (clockwise, left to right) NREL 51934, NREL 45897, NREL 42160, NREL 45891, NREL 48097, NREL 46526. NREL prints on paper that contains recycled content. iii This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at Acknowledgments The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), SunSpec Alliance, and Roger Hill were supported by the.

5 Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) under Agreement 32315 in the production of this report. The authors would like to thank the following working group contributors to this report. Working Group Coordinator Dylan Tansy, SunSpec Alliance Support Team Ammar Qusaibaty, SETO Andy Walker, NREL Eric Lockhart, NREL Travis Lowder, NREL Kari Burman, NREL, ret. Geoff Klise, SNL Roger Hill, consultant Tom Tansy, SunSpec Alliance Tim Keating, SunSpec Alliance Olga Lavrova, SNL Anil Pochiraju, SunSpec Alliance Jessie Deot, SunSpec Alliance Bob Fox, SunSpec Alliance Chuck Kurnik, NREL Interviewees Greg Sellers, Clean Power Finance Jean Paul La Marche, Main Street Power Dirk Michaels, K & L Gates Rue Philips, True South David Kenny, Sunrun Leigh Zanone, Meteocontrol Paul Lanning, Lightbox Energy Sarah Disch, Wells Fargo Andrew Truitt, Distributed Resource Ventures Marco Lopez, Alectris Ross Biesemeyer, First Solar Laks Sampath, Alectris Mark Berger.

6 NextGrid Technologies iv This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at 2017 Working Group Roster Eric Alderman, Airphrame Carlos Alves, Nextera Energy Services Rob Andrews, Queen's University John Balfour, High Performance PV Stephen Barkaski, FLS Energy Jimmy Bergeron, SolarCity Michael Bolen, Electric Power Research Institute Peter Bostock, VDE Americas Alex Bradley, dupont Bill Brooks, Brooks Engineering Paul Brucke, Brucke Engineering Jon Budreski, Air Shark Kari Burman, NREL Joe Cain, Solar Energy Industries Assoc.(SEIA) Nathan Charles, Enphase Energy Daisy Chung, Solar Electric Power Assoc.

7 (SEPA) Joe Cunningham, Centrosolar Jessie Deot, SunSpec Skip Dise, Clean Power Research Ron Drobeck, System Operations Live View (SOLV) Nadav Enbar, Electric Power Research Institute Cary Fukada, OpTerra Energy Services Cyrille Godenot, Schneider Electric Danya Golan, Solar Edge Steve Hanawalt, Power Factors LLC Chris Henderson, Ameresco Martin Herzfeld, independent consultant Roger Hill, consultant Bill Hoffer, Sunergy Engineering Services Rebekah Hren, Solar Energy International Sandeep Jadhav, Mahindra Susten Dirk Jordan, NREL Raymond Kaiser, Amzur Technologies Joe Kastner, Radian Generation Tim Keating, SunSpec Jason Kechijian, SolBright George Kelly, Sunset Technology, Inc.

8 Geoff Klise, SNL Pramod Krishnani, Terraform Power Bhushan Kunjeer, Enersaas Sarah Kurtz, NREL Paul Lanning, Lightbox Energy Olga Lavrova, SNL Richard Lawrence, Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS) Eric Lockhart, NREL Mike Loeser, Strata Solar Jaya Mallineni, Nexamp Inc. Joseph McCabe, Renewable Energy Champion Ryan McCauly, Tritium3 Dirk Michels, Ballard Spahr Reegan Moen, SOLV Jamie Mordarski, SMA America Jesse Moses, Swinerton Renewable Energy Matt Murphy, Borrego Solar Sean Murphy, SolBright Renewable Energy, LLC Eric Nessl, Strata Solar Christina Nichols, DOE Don Nista, Cypress Creek Renewables Angelo Purpura, SOLV Michael Rogerson, Solar Edge AJ Rossman, Smart Resource Mary Rottman, Rottman Associates Laks Sampath, Alectris Jadhav Sandeep, Mahindra Susten Rudy Saporite, IBTS Kenneth Sauer, DNVGL Thomas Sauer, Exxergy Ulrich KW Schwabe, SEGIS-AC awardees Bill Shisler, NRG Jeff Southard.

9 Juniper Unmanned Inc. Jeff Spies, North American Board of Certified Energy Professionals (NABCEP) Kristy Straiton, American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Dylan Tansy, SunSpec Tom Tansy, SunSpec Abhay Tilwankar, Mahindra Susten Ernest (Ernie) Tom, Salt River Project Will Troppe, Power Factors LLC Andrew Truitt, Dividend Finance Andy Walker, NREL Carter Wall, Franklin Beach Energy John Williamson, Array Technologies Gordon Woodcock, Taitem Engineering, PC Leigh Zanone, 8minutenergy v This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at 2016 Working Group Roster Eric Alderman, Airphrame Carlos Alves, Nextera Energy Services Rob Andrews, Heliolytics Inc.

10 John Balfour, High Performance PV Jimmy Bergeron, SolarCity Michael Bolen, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Peter Bostock, VDE Americas Alex Bradley, dupont Bill Brooks, Brooks Engineering Paul Brucke, Brucke Engineering Jon Budreski, Air Shark Ben Compton, NextPhase Solar Joe Cunningham, Centrosolar Skip Dise, Clean Power Research Ron Drobeck, SOLV Nadav Enbar, EPRI Cary Fukada, OpTerra Energy Services Jeff Gilbert, Vigilant Energy Management Danya Golan, SolarEdge Shannon Grein, Empyrean Electric Steve Hanawalt, Power Factors LLC Chris Henderson, Ameresco Martin Herzfeld, consultant Roger Hill, consultant Bill Hoffer, Sunergy Engineering Services PLLC Rebekah Hren, Solar Energy International Joe Kastner, Radian Generation Jason Kechijian.