Customer:
Scatec ASA
Digitized maintenance solution for solar cell plants
Scatec ASA is a Norwegian company that provides renewable energy solutions with a portfolio of 4.6 GW of solar, hydro, and wind power in operation and under construction. To ensure optimal availability and performance of its solar power plants, the company uses the cloud-based solution HxGN EAM and has chosen Prevas to implement the solution globally.
Scatec ASA produces renewable energy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, primarily in Laos, the Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, and Uganda. Implementation of HxGN EAM got underway at two of the plants in the autumn of 2018, and was then gradually implemented at other sites.
“A challenge we had in 2019 was that there were no previous references from the use of HxGN EAM for utility-scale solar plants,” says Heiko Birkholz, who led Scatec’s part of the implementation of HxGN EAM. “We essentially had to start from scratch and investigate what information and standards we needed for the system to function as a good support tool for our users and for the business.”
Nordic partner for HxGN EAM
HxGN EAM is owned by Hexagon and with several thousand customers in the public and private sectors, it is one of the world’s most widespread service and maintenance systems. In the Nordic region, the system is provided by Prevas, which is a Premier Channel Partner for the solution. Scatec had already built utility-scale solar plants in 2019 but was not using a maintenance system when Prevas came into the picture.
“In some ways, it can be easier to implement a system when there is not one already in place that users are used to working in,” says Bjørn Moland, project manager for the implementation and Product manager for HxGN EAM at Prevas. “At the same time, one challenge for Scatec was that they needed to collect large amounts of data to get started and use the system.”
Value-added maintenance solutions
At present, Scatec has twenty solar plants in ten countries. HxGN EAM is used to centralize maintenance information and digitize O&M processes like preventive and corrective maintenance, but the system has also been integrated with Scatec’s central monitoring system that warns of faults requiring rectification. A work order is then automatically sent to the local O&M team in HxGN EAM, where the completed work is also documented.
In addition, equipment warranties are managed through the system as well as warehousing and procurement of spare parts and materials.
“A challenge in the beginning was the information collected from the different plants needed to have a suitable level and structure,” says Moland. “When this was to be done initially, we were on-site twice to train and teach the system administrators, superusers, and end users. After the original implementation, we have held follow-up meetings through Teams with Scatec’s users in different countries, which has worked well even though we are in different regions, different time zones with different local languages.”
In addition to the integration with the operational control system, HxGN EAM also communicates with Scatec’s Azure Data Platform and all data is further processed for reporting and analytics in PowerBI – Scatec’s BI solution. The data from both HxGN EAM and Scatec’s central monitoring system provides insights to production losses, time spent, response time, fault types, and material consumption, for example.
“Prevas has been a reliable and trustworthy partner from the start,” says Birkholz. “Prior to the first implementation, the most important thing was to determine how HxGN EAM would be adapted for our specific business. Today, the collaboration involves developing the system further, such as integrations with the Finance and HR system or the implementation of a digital work permit system. If challenges or problems arise, we know that we will always get help to solve them.”
Keywords
Renewable energy, solar installations, maintenance systems
Contact us
Einar Alexander Andersen, Prevas AS, e-mail
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