System Performance Metering [RE-wrenches]

Fri Dec 17 08:12:58 PST 2004

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...and in the meantime, tens of thousands of PV systems in Japan and
Germany monitor performance which gives customers and politicians
confidence that their incentives are resulting in better quality PV sytems.
A PV system without metering is like a car without dashboard instruments.
You can operate it but at your own risk.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Bill Brooks billb at endecon.com
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 02:09:06 -0800
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: System Performance Metering [RE-wrenches]

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John,

I was directly behind the requirement for performance metering due to the
fact that most systems installed in the first 3 years of the California
program had no way to record energy production. I tried to get the CEC to
adopt a standardized, conservative method of estimating annual energy
production, but they opted for the installer to provide the estimate. The
whole idea was predicated on the fact that we were not going to get a
performance incentive any time soon because neither the CEC nor CalSEIA
supported the idea at the time. CalSEIA has changed their tune and the CEC
still talks of a "pilot program", but until a performance incentive is
required, it will not happen here in California. 

My idea, back when the energy "crisis" was in full swing and everybody was
lobbying for more rebate dollars, was to keep the rebate at the then $3/Watt
amount and add a performance incentive of $0.15 to $0.20/kWh (similar to an
increase of $1.50/Watt rebate increase). Everybody wanted the $4.50/Watt up
front and I was summarily squashed by the masses running to the money. Alas
we now sit with nearly 11,000 systems in the field and no real mechanism to
get the data in to the state's data base. A CEC website for homeowners to
enter their own performance data has been suggested, but nothing has been
done about it. Homeowners who contribute to this type of a website would
then be allowed to access data from other fellow system owners--this still
should be done.

My secret plan was that as these systems consistently underperform for those
installers that do not know how to calculate annual energy production,
customers would begin to react and force a greater level of competency in
our industry. Good software exists to estimate energy production (the Clean
Power Estimator on the CEC website is as good as any), but as we have said
over and over, garbage in is garbage out with a computer program.

The one area that hurt most in losing by standardized performance estimation
argument is that there is no explicite requirement to test for shading. This
is often the most significant element that reduces output and yet no
computer programs to date do a very good job of estimating the issue. There
is still no good alternative to a good, old fashion Solar Pathfinder
analysis.

Bill.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Raynes [mailto:john at raynes.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:08 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: System Performance Metering [RE-wrenches]

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This is directed primarily to the CA Wrenches:

Is any systematic effort being made to record and tabulate the data that's 
available from the system performance meter that's required on grid tie 
systems?  Or are they just required in hopes that they will be looked at 
occasionally in order to verify optimal system performance?

I know there's been a lot of discussion threads here about expected 
performance levels of grid tie PV systems, and how meaningful this type of 
data really is.  That's a whole 'nother topic.  I just want to know if 
there is any aspect of the CA program where data is regularly collected 
from at least some percentage of target residences.

Any comments, with either a regional or state-wide perspective, are 
appreciated.  Or if you're in another state with a program where data 
collection is being done, I'd be interested in that, too.

Thanks,
John Raynes
RE Solar
Torrey, UT 

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