Page 20 - North American Clean Energy May/June 2020 Issue
P. 20

    solar energy
 Get Back in the Clear
Recovering utility-scale plants to minimize
losses from extreme weather damage
by Auston Taber and Clifford Myers, PE
  Secure maximum insurance payouts
Unlike new plant construction, remediation projects require working closely with insurance companies from start to finish. Maximizing insurance pay-outs requires extensive documentation that can cost 15- 25 percent of the entire project’s labor costs.
An insurer will have its own vendors tracking the project, such as subrogation and investigations teams. Although asset managers may work directly with an insurance adjuster, contractors are more likely to communicate through a third party hired to assist the adjuster. Here is where having a full-scope general contractor that is responsible for the myriad of subcontractors can be the difference between collecting a full insurance claim, and incurring substantial losses due to unforeseen delays.
Save through salvage
Before beginning restoration work, consider setting standards for testing damaged equipment, and establishing criteria about what warrants repair and what mandates replacement. Here, too, is where substantial restoration experience can prove invaluable. Flexibility is key - be assiduous about maintaining quality, but don’t miss an opportunity to continue using viable parts.
In one project, the plant owner and insurance company were prepared to spend about $4 million to replace inverters flooded by a hurricane. Instead, they took advantage of an alternative plan that was offered to them, which salvaged and refurbished the flooded units, saving them $1.8 million.
Stagger your work
Minimizing the business interruption insurance claim can help maximize recovery. Unlike new builds, restorations involve balancing current production needs against deconstruction and replacement demands. Look for opportunities to stagger the work to minimize interruption and prioritize production recovery. For example, if one inverter is down simply because of a ground fault, but the rest of the array is in good shape, prioritize restoration at that location to get an entire section of the plant back online.
Set contingency plans
Develop multiple contingency plans so that if one repair must be delayed, other activities can be slotted in immediately to keep the project moving forward. If components delivery is delayed
in one area, shift work immediately to a process that doesn’t
FROM SANDSTORMS AND STORM SURGES
to tornadoes and wildfires, natural disasters can wreak havoc
on solar power infrastructure — taking out inverters, knocking entire plants offline, and sending owners into a spiral of down time, repair costs, and lost revenue. In those critical first minutes and hours after a disaster, decision-makers must quickly choose a direction based on seemingly conflicting information. Here's what you need to know about plant recovery and restoration to get solar production back online.
Assess the damage
First up is a careful assessment of what’s gone wrong. There are four levels of damage to consider:
• Complete destruction: Nothing is operational. There is no way to generate power from any part of the plant without significant remediation.
• Partial destruction: Anywhere from 15 percent to half of the site is offline. The rest may be operational, but balancing repairs elsewhere may require shutting down undamaged sections over time.
• Minor damage: Roughly 10 percent of the site has been affected. There might be one or two central inverters offline and some tracker rows may be damaged, but overall the site can produce power and perform.
• Site intact with some production issues: One or more inverters are offline, but the overall site is generating power.
Get clear with documentation
The key to combating force majeure damage is thorough documentation. Initial impressions can be misleading. Even if damage appears to be minimal, there is value in documenting every aspect of the site that appears to have been affected, even superficially. Take pictures - at least four or five for everything that will require attention. Note components that may no longer be in production, and determine which OEMs will play significant roles moving forward.
For sites with more extensive damage, consider grid-by-
grid drone flyover to map the level of destruction. Insurance companies often cover drone inspections because they want to know what they’re dealing with just as much as you do.
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MAY•JUNE 2020 ///
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