Nispera helps to monitor huge Mexican solar plants

A renewable energy plant generates millions of data points every day, from the different sensors installed. While it is already a big task to retrieve and store this operational data, it becomes a prohibitive one to process it and extract insights from it. Anyone involved with the management of large-scale renewables assets is faced with the issue of having too much data but too little information. This becomes even more complex since data with different structures coming from different sources has to be considered together in order to get the full picture (e.g. operational data from the assets, actual weather and forecasts, electricity prices, transmission grid, etc.).

Analysing 4 million data point per day

"Using big-data analytics supported by artificial intelligence models, we are able to identify in real time which parts of our plants are not performing as they should. This allows us to promptly implement corrective measures, thus ensuring our assets are delivering the maximum value”, says Michael Bax, managing director of Centauro Energia. He also adds: “without the support of such advanced models, it would be practically impossible for an operator to get an overview as the volume of data involved is massive and the influences of different parameters can become very complex. On eo f our plants is composed of more than 200’000 solar modules grouped in nearly 11’000 strings, which generate more than 4 million data points per day! We are glad that Nispera supports us in this task”.

Centauro Energia is managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, one of the world's leading alternative asset managers that is aiming to become the global leader in sustainable real asset management. Centauro Energia owns and operates a fast-growing renewable asset portfolio in Mexico composed of 8 photovoltaic plants and 2 wind farms, having a total installed capacity of 262 MW. The company plans to extend the size of its portfolio in the coming years through acquisitions and developments.