In this article, you will learn how to set up your energy management platform accounts in order to analyse your solar generation projects.
Content of the article:
Introduction
The energy management platform offers a set of functionalities that help you to effortlessly communicate and justify the savings achieved with your solar PV investments.
Requirements
- Have solar generation data on the platform, parameters:
- 452 Energy produced
- 402 Active energy
- Have minimum hourly frequency to be able to configure the cost of energy consumed and savings.
- To have reference meters assigned to the installation.
- Have prices and supplies created and assigned to the corresponding installation. Learn how to configure them here.
- Install the following apps from the Apps market:
- Virtual devices app
- Microgrid app
- Avoided cost
- Synoptic
Configuring the account
The data that you need to unlock all the features is:
- Total consumption of the building where the panels were installed (parameter 402).
- Total generation of the PV panels (parameter 452).
- The energy exchanged with the grid, both imported (parameter 402) and exported (parameter 452) if it applies.
In case you don't have all this information, you could configure virtual devices to cover the non-existent devices. If you would like to have parameters such as saved CO2 or saved trees, the recommended app is as well the Virtual Devices App. Other steps you should follow are:
Configuration of virtual devices app
To be able to make energy balances and visualise your energy flows and the CO2 equivalent, you can use the Virtual device app.
Energy balance variables
In the Virtual Devices App, you should configure the requested information that is not available in the platform. Sometimes, a simple operation will be enough to obtain the remaining information. In the case displayed below, the only monitored data is the total generation and the total consumption of the building. In this case, you should configure the following virtual devices:
- Energy imported from the grid: If the generated energy is smaller than the consumed energy in the building, then the imported energy from the grid is the difference between the generated and the consumed energy.
- Variables
- v1 : Total energy consumed (402)
- v2: Produced energy (452)
- Parameter
- Active energy 402
- Formula
- ((v1-v2)+fabs(v1-v2))/2
- Variables
- Energy exported to the grid: If the generated energy is bigger than the consumed energy in the building, then the remaining energy is injected into the grid.
- Variables
- v1: Total energy consumed (402)
- v2: Produced energy (452)
- Parameter
- Produced Active Energy
- Formula
- ((v2-v1)+fabs(v2-v1))/2
- Variables
- Saved Energy: Balance between the energy generated by the grid and the energy consumed by the building. It's the energy that your plant has generated that you haven't purchased from your utility.
- Variables
- v1: Energy imported from the grid (402)
- v2: Energy consumed by the building (402)
- Parameter
- Active Energy
- Formula
- v2 - v1
- Variables
Sustainability parameters
With virtual devices, you can calculate the sustainability indicators to get the equivalence between energy units and CO2 or Saved trees.
- Saved-CO2
- Variables
- v1: Saved energy
- Parameter
- Active Energy
- Formula
- v1*<conversion factor of the electricity market in your country>
- Variables
- Saved-trees
- Variables
- v1: Saved energy
- Parameter
- Active Energy
- Formula
- v1*<conversion coefficient from energy to trees>
- Variables
Assignment of reference devices
In order to visualise data on the analysis screens, you must assign the device to the corresponding location. Then assign the following reference meters:
- Main Supply: The device representing the energy exchange with the grid, both imported and exported.
- Machinery: The device representing the total building consumption.
- Photovoltaic: The device representing the total generation.
More information about reference meters, here.
Microgrid configuration
Please visit this article in order to learn how to configure the app Microgrid.
Analysing the results
In this section, you will find some proposals to analyse the results of your solar installations:
- Configuration of synoptic graphs
- Configuration of dashboards with the main indicators
- M&V results
- Microgrid
- Avoided Cost Report
Configuration of Synoptic graphs
There are several synoptic graphs you could configure, but here you will find a proposal:
You could upload a picture representing the energy flows in your installation and then add the parameters that are of interest to the Synoptic chart.
Learn how to configure the Synoptic App here.
And contact your support provider if you would like to use the same image that is used in this article.
Configuration of Dashboards with the main indicators
You could configure Dashboards by using widgets that show information that might be of interest to you. Here you can find an example:
In this example, there are the following widgets:
- Generation during last 24h
- Saved CO2 during last month (information coming from a virtual device)
- Saved trees during last month (information coming from a virtual device)
- Meteo forecast
- Grid consumption during last 24h
- Energy cost (related to the grid consumption) during last 24h
- Saved energy during last 24h (information coming from a virtual device)
- Saved cost (related to the saved energy) during last 24h
You can choose the background images for your dashboard! More information about dashboards here.
M&V results
The M&V module will help you demonstrate the savings that have been obtained thanks to the installation of the solar panels. In order to do so, you should:
- Configure the baseline considering the consumption you had before you installed the solar panels.
- Configure as the demonstration period the months when the panels were already installed.
In order to learn how to configure the M&V projects, visit this article. If needed, you could also create your baseline by using the app ABC.
Microgrid
Please learn all the information included in the Microgrid in the following article.
Avoided Cost report
Please learn all the information included in the Avoided Cost report and how to configure it in the following article.