Power Limitation Corrected: Delfos Prevents 20.15 MWh in Losses at a Solar Plant

With Delfos’ support, a customer in the solar sector identified and corrected a power limitation on an inverter that had already caused more than 20 MWh of energy losses, without the O&M team being aware of the problem.

Context

During routine monitoring via the Delfos platform, it was observed that inverter INV01 showed a consistently lower Performance Ratio (PR) than the others, even with no visible operational failures in the field. The behavior caught the customer team’s attention, who brought the topic to a Performance Engineering meeting with the Delfos technical team.

This performance anomaly represented an ongoing risk of energy loss, as it could have gone unnoticed for long periods if not properly diagnosed.

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Implemented Solution

Based on a detailed analysis by the Delfos Performance Engineering team—and using tools such as the Performance Heatmap, Active Power analyses, and inverter comparisons—a configuration-based power limitation was identified on INV01’s inputs, and the configuration was corrected after the technical meeting.

Once the limitation was removed, PR aligned with the reference inverters and the “plateaus” in the power curve were eliminated. For the analyzed period of approximately six months, an energy loss of 20.15 MWh was estimated, and the recurrence of this deviation was mitigated with the applied correction.

This limitation—until then unknown to the customer’s O&M team—was significantly reducing the equipment’s performance. From an operational standpoint, diagnostic hours were reduced and interventions became more objective. From a business perspective, revenue recovery was observed and performance indicators became more reliable.

Results Achieved

Based on Delfos’ analysis, the customer adjusted the inverter configuration, eliminating the undue limitation.

• Future Energy Recovery: The inverter returned to operating with performance comparable to the rest of the plant.
• Estimated Energy Lost Before the Correction: 20.15 MWh over approximately six months of limited operation.
• Visible PR Improvement (Performance Ratio): as evidenced in the heatmap after the correction.

Conclusion

Detecting the performance deviation made it possible to adjust the inverter configuration, recover production, and prevent new losses. The team gained visibility into limitations not signaled by alarms, reduced diagnostic time, and standardized fleet performance. With technical support from the Delfos Performance Engineering team and its advanced analysis tools, the customer not only solved the problem quickly but also avoided future energy losses and optimized the asset’s performance.

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