Two months ago Power DOT Data was approached by a well known Johannesburg based software company to assist them with going green and reducing their power bills from Eskom. In addition to this the company was looking for a solar installation that would provide them with the best Return On Investment (ROI) and would increase the value of the property, which they owned. This particular company were utilizing a 3-phase power supply from Eskom along with a diesel generator for backup and emergency power and required the solar installation to become an integral part of their energy supply.
There were several challenges involved in the solar installation requirements, namely a restricted budget, and a constrained and uneven roof-space on which to install the solar panel array. After several iterations a Grid-Tied solution was scoped that would involve installing two 5kW SolarEdge single-phase inverters on two of the most heavily utilized phases with a total output of 10kW. The solar panels would have to be mounted on a specially designed platform in order to accommodate the 30 panels with SolarEdge Power Optimisers required and to allow for future expansion should they decide to expand on the installation.
Building a platform for solar panels
An initial kick-off date for the solar project was set in order to accommodate the clients business schedule and PDD began promptly on that date with the installation of the initial metal framework for the supporting platform on the roof space.
Completed installation of the solar panels.
As per the site requirements all of the equipment needed to be installed externally and as a result needed to comply with the IP65 international ratings to be completely weatherproof and secure.
The completed installation of the inverters and DC and AC distribution boards.
The site went live within 5 days from project kick-off as planned, and started producing savings of 50kWh per day for the client. The estimated production for this site is 16MWh per annum.
All reporting on site performance is done to a central online portal, down to the reporting on each individual solar panels performance, and alerts are setup to inform both the client and PDD should any incidents arise or if any of the components are under performing, allowing PDD to attend to any issues should they occur giving the client complete peace of mind that his solution is performing at its best.