Fat Spaniel Technologies, a provider of monitoring and reporting services for distributed renewable energy systems, has released its new String Monitoring Service. The service is designed to enable solar electric power purchase agreement service providers, system installers, and system operators to better manage and maximize commercial-scale solar electric energy generation.
According to the company, the String Monitoring Service allows maintenance staff to quickly pinpoint and resolve problems with failed strings of modules or failed individual solar modules. Quick problem resolution results in increased energy production and increased project cashflows.
"Fat Spaniel's String Monitoring Service will enable us to cost-effectively find and fix even small problems before they have the chance to sap the energy output of the solar array, ensuring that we are delivering the high quality of service and performance that our customers expect," comments Norm Nielsen, president of Chico Electric.
The new service allows any Fat Spaniel-enabled combiner box to support a range of real-time and historical monitoring capabilities, including:
- Cost-effective multi-string management – The ability to accurately measure and analyze DC current for up to 24 strings from a single combiner box reduces hardware costs.
- Real-time status alerts – Customizable alerts deliver instant notifications when individual string faults occur, making it easy to pinpoint problems and reduce system downtime.
- Insight Manager portal – Designed to simultaneously manage multiple commercial-scale renewable energy systems, Insight Manager delivers the full spectrum of Fat Spaniel's remote energy monitoring, reporting and fault management services in a comprehensive Web-based portal.
