Digitalization and remote asset management: the way forwardThe use of drones in solar/PV inspections is growing rapidly. PES caught up with Vishal Punamiya, CEO at Sitemark, to find out how this is moving the solar/PV industry forward. Drone inspections provide more accurate data and with Sitemark’s Fuse platform, the exact status of an asset is known at all times. Allowing applications to integrate and provide full asset management remotely. Time and costs are saved and efficiency is increased.

PES: Hi Vishal, Welcome to PES Solar. It’s great to talk to you. We know you work in several industries, and we would like to know how important the solar/PV industry is to you?

Vishal Punamiya: The solar/PV industry is hugely important to us, it’s 50% of our core business today, but it wasn’t always the case. Let’s back up a little, and I’ll give some background about how Sitemark came to be,

as the solar/PV industry wasn’t always our number one market. Originally the concept for the company was to offer a networked drone package delivery service; we even went as far as building a

PES SOLAR1

ASK THE EXPERTS: ASSET MANAGEMENT

WWW.PESSOLAR.COM 2

ASK THE EXPERTS: ASSET MANAGEMENT

drone and wanted to call the company Dronegrid, hence our original name. We quickly realized this may have been a little too crazy at the time, but we knew we were onto something with drones.

The drone industry was starting to explode, and the more we read on the internet, everyone was using them, or so we thought. Our initial goal was to lower the cost of data acquisition and make using drones cheaper and more accessible for enterprises. Once we started meeting customers, we quickly realized that we were a little ahead of the game, and some of our earliest customers weren’t even using drones at the time.

However, Eneco, a Belgian energy company, saw the potential and became Sitemark’s first customer in the solar/PV industry. Eneco started with an inspection of one site and was so impressed with the insight we provided they decided to inspect their entire Belgian portfolio that summer and the rest is history.

The solar/PV industry is important to Sitemark for many reasons, but as the business was finding its feet, we saw the Energy industry moving faster than others, and this speed quickly helped us gain traction. Solar was and still is a relatively new industry, and with this infancy, decision-makers have been more easily accessible, entrepreneurial, and decisions could be made quickly.

Our value proposition in the solar/PV industry was also resonating with the market, and for the people we met with, it showed how we could benefit their business, they quickly came on board. Since then, Sitemark has continued to disrupt the solar/PV industry with our technology going from strength to strength.

PES: Digitalization is the current industry buzz word, what does digitalization mean to Sitemark?

VP: It’s not a buzz word for us. In every one of our industries, Sitemark helps our customers

manage assets, and whether it’s in solar, construction, agriculture, or mining, we see our customers wanting to digitize their assets.

In the construction world, there is lots of talk about BIM (building information management), but once the building is erected, the structure will be maintained using BIM. If there is a change of management company, everything is available digitally. This is incredibly powerful.

A digitalized site, means a huge difference in how to manage the asset going forward but for many, a time, expense, and challenge of converting existing properties into a digital world was prohibitive. Drones then entered the picture and it was changed forever. It’s now possible to fly over a site and depending on the size, have a digitalized version within 30 minutes, in a resolution never seen before.

The combination of drones, photogrammetry, and AI, coming together at the right time and the right quality, now enables companies like Sitemark to build whole businesses around it and change the game. I think the reason why digitalization is seen as an industry buzz word is because everyone wants it.

Companies want digitalization but can’t find the right solution. Companies hire personnel specifically for this task, because they know how important it is. By using drones and adding the Sitemark ‘magic’, which brings it all together, the path to digitalization can be really easy.

It’s also worth noting that from an investment perspective, it’s been proven that going digital will increase the value of an asset or site. If selling an asset in the future, the proof it has been managed and serviced correctly over its life time is there..

It’s similar to the analogy of buying a car from a garage knowing the car has been maintained every year. You feel a greater sense of security when you have a record of all the services and maintenance and know how well it’s been running. I think we would all prefer to buy the well-maintained car with a full-service history and it’s no different when purchasing a PV asset or an entire portfolio of sites.

PES: Please could you tell us about your Sitemark platform?

VP: At the beginning of August 2019 Sitemark rebranded. One key element of the project was to choose a new name for our aerial data platform. We decided upon Sitemark ‘Fuse’ as it would better align with our vision for the future; ‘fusing the physical and digital world.’

Sitemark’s Fuse platform is web-based, and we chose this for a couple of reasons: one, the web is the way forward, and two: the possibilities to integrate with other applications, such as inverter monitoring systems, asset management systems, SCADA systems and workflow management tools, the list goes on.

This enrichment of the digital twin through

multiple data sources, while enabling collaboration, is where we believe the industry is heading as it will make assets significantly more productive.

A digital twin makes sense because, at all times, the exact status of the asset is known, saving time and money. Now that checks can be made remotely, comparisons are made digitally using the digital twin. A drone scanning a solar site, finds anomalies in a 10th of time than before.

We offer cause detection as a feature in the platform. Not only do we find the problem, but also the location, cause, and impact on a business. A technician’s life is simplified as they can prepare interventions from their computer, and the managers of the technicians can follow up easily to know what’s happening in the field.

As for the platform itself, Sitemark Fuse allows collaboration within the digital twin. Results can be viewed, flights ordered, pilots managed, and depending on the need, platform can be configured to the specifications. What makes our platform different from all the rest is how we solve real industrial applications. Sitemark isn’t just capturing drone data or helping to fly drones, we close the gap between the drone data and the digital twin.

Having the data is one thing, but it’s all about what is done with it?

Asset owners want to know answers to their specific questions. What panels are broken/affected and what’s affecting them? Are the panels operating efficiently and what are their losses? What do I need to fix first in order to maximize return on investment?

Allowing tasks to be allocated to specific teams means maximum efficiency. Many of our customers are not thermography experts. We cater for all knowledge levels, and the platform allows for deep interrogation of the data. Thus, customers are able to evaluate and understand their site or portfolio better.

The proprietary algorithms in the platform are able to identify and categorize 14 different types of anomalies, the impact of each anomaly, potential causes and give a custom loss calculation for each anomaly.

As the PV inspection season goes into full throttle in Europe, another recent addition to

Vishal Punamiya

Sitemark Fuse creates digital twins for yourassets.

our platform is our 2.0 dashboard for PV site inspections, where we have implemented our advanced financial, production loss estimation and CO2 impact calculation algorithms. The tool allows comparison at regional level, anomalies, severity and hotspot distribution, giving an understanding of what has happened, and so better prepare for what will happen in the future.

PES: We notice there are many functionalities, why is this, and how do these impact on the customer?

VP: Sitemark has a very talented and creative team of people behind it, solving the real-world problems our customers deal with, on a day to day basis. We believe the basics of what we do is simple; capture the world in thermal or RGB, find issues, and using advanced technologies and AI, turn the data into insights.

There are lots of features, functionalities, and ways of exporting data into reports or dashboards, but every feature or functionality developed makes sense. Our product roadmap is driven by the impact features have on our customers, and everything has and will continue to be, developed based on customer need.

By using machine learning, AI, and computer vision technology, we can count, detect, and compile data into actionable insights, and this is how we make a difference. Customers in the energy industry will see the impact of these insights immediately. Sitemark’s loss estimation tool shows how much money or megawatts are being lost and makes it very black and white.

By helping customers to focus on fixing issues on site, we can help them to understand how much more energy could be produced, which in turn means how much more money they could be making; it’s as simple as that.

Outside of the solar/PV industry, construction, agriculture, or mining, it’s all about improving operational efficiency, something that is difficult to measure and takes a lot more effort to change processes, which may not have changed within the last one hundred years. It’s also much harder to digitize. The energy industry, in comparison, is already largely digitized today, and can be

taken to the next digitized level more quickly.

When we develop a new product, the first thing we do is understand the customers’ problems and see what value we can provide with the data. Drone data can do many things, but closing the loop between the drone data and the application is the tricky part, and that’s where Sitemark shines as we specialize in AI detection and creating data. Regardless of the industry, our Fuse platform provides customers with several benefits, including increased operational efficiency, reduced risk, maximized data usage, simplified workflows, collaboration tools, and actionable insights.

PES: How important is the securing of accurate operational data, and why?

VP: It’s essential because the quality of the data going in indicates the quality of the data coming out. We saw this at the beginning of Sitemark, when we were scaling up our data acquisition. Pilots were sending different types of data, in different formats and of varying quality. It was at that point that we decided to build the Sitemark Pilot App, which streamlines the data intake process and is designed to be able to always guarantee good data quality.

This approach has resulted into an extremely streamlined consistent process of acquiring high quality data that is agnostic to hardware and pilot skills. This approach has also empowered our customers to internalize

data acquisition, to have more flexibility and lower costs. For example, something often overlooked is the importance of data acquisition in challenging environments, dealing with things like hilly terrain to maintaining a consistent image resolution, dealing with reflections, sensor calibration among several other challenges.

In the screen shot below the original picture has significant reflection, however this has been completely removed, whilst preserving data accuracy.

PES: All this of course is geared towards real cost-savings, can you give us an idea of how considerable these savings could be in a typical case?

VP: We have a concrete example that we can share with you. Orix, Japan’s largest solar asset owner, has a 15 MW solar site and on the first two inverters alone, we uncovered over €63,000 of yearly losses. Fortunately, this was discovered early on, but imagine if this site had been operating at those losses for many years and they were unaware. We’re not saying that uncovering the problem will regain the money, but we also reveal issues that are covered under the manufacturer’s warranty.

Data can be viewed easily through interactive dashboards, and losses are calculated in MW, euros, or any other local currency, based on the specific feed and tariffs. Typical cost savings are quite difficult to give because there isn’t a typical case. Every site is unique, and each country is different. Feeds and tariffs vary greatly even within countries and between states.

All of these factors can be entered as parameters in the platform, and loss on a specific asset is visible easily seen and across the entire portfolio.

PES: Is it possible to give us some examples of where and how it is used?

VP: Sitemark is used worldwide, we have previously given an example from Orix in Japan, but we are used in six continents and in over 30 countries. Today, our services are available globally. In some countries where we are not physically present, we rely on our network of partners. If any readers are drone pilots and are interested in joining our Pilot Network, please get in touch.

PES: We see that you are also involved in

ASK THE EXPERTS: ASSET MANAGEMENT

Insights into loss estimation, mostcommon types of anomalies, causes and severitycan be found in the statistics view on the platform.

AI detection of solar panels.

The pilot app automatically accountsfor hilly terrain and adjusts the flightpathaccordingly.

Reflections get corrected in theoverall view of the inspection while the originalimages can still be viewed too.

PES SOLAR3

solar site construction. Can you tell us how that works?

VP: Sitemark can be used end-to-end in the solar/PV project lifecycle. From pre-construction to construction, commissioning, operation and merger and acquisition. In the construction phase of a site, Sitemark is extremely useful the land is surveyed in a fraction of the time. The construction tools within the platform, and combined with our knowledge of solar and construction is really powerful.

By using AI and computer vision, Sitemark can count installed panels, verify the angle of the panels, the position of the poles, number of poles, and provide a progress report on how the site is evolving. Once the sites are complete, an essential next step is to commission the site. It’s important to check the site has been built to the specifications and if all panels are working correctly. We find far too often that parts of the site are not plugged in. A fuse could be missing, or a string is not performing correctly, and it wouldn’t be detected without an aerial inspection.

Relying on the monitoring system will confirm that an asset is producing energy, but how well? The sun is shining, the site is new, and it should be performing at 100%. However, how many times are panels damaged in transit, delivery, or during installation? Even micro-cracks are detected, any loss will reflect in a thermal signature or hotspot. We can’t stress enough the importance of inspecting a site at commissioning, as simple things like a structure casting a shadow can lead to site to underperformance.Equally, if not more important, is regular maintenance: the need to know how well the asset is performing. If another company is performing the maintenance, how well they are doing? If the site owner performs the maintenance, a lot of time and resources can be saved by pinpointing exactly where the

problems are.

Sitemark can also work with monitoring systems. These are very powerful at ensuring availability and confirming that a site is performing at its best, 24x7, but they don’t have the resolution we provide.

Sitemark can scan up to cell level, within every panel, within every string, within the whole site and the inverter, we go deep. Not only do we find the issue at cell level, but we also detect the causes. Unlike monitoring systems today that measure current, voltage, and the weather, and try to create meaningful data from it.

By measuring energy production from a large number of panels, if there are one or two broken strings, this could cause an issue, and the site owner wouldn’t necessarily know, until the problem

becomes big enough for the monitoring system to detect it. Something as simple as cloud or shading can cause a variation of 5% less energy, so having the combination of both Sitemark technology and monitoring systems is very exciting.

PES: Currently are there any new projects on the horizon that you would like to share with us?

VP: Sitemark has a long pipeline of projects in the works, globally. From a 300 MW site in India - one of Sitemark’s largest to date. The entire portfolio of an O&M company in Spain. Orix in Japan continues to acquire new assets worldwide and inspections in South America and South Africa. Our customer base continues to grow throughout Europe, with one of the biggest solar sites in the Netherlands recently being inspected, to the largest roof top mounted site in Europe.

PES: Geographically speaking where are your key customers, and would you like to break into any other areas?

VP: As mentioned earlier, our customers are global. Every customer is a key customer to Sitemark, and this is why companies continue to work with us because of the service they receive. We plan to invest heavily in the U.S during 2019-2020 not just in the PV sector, but across other verticals as well.

PES: What would you say makes Sitemark

stand out from the competition, and how do you intend to stay one step ahead?

VP: It’s down to our employees, how we support our customers and the way we do things. Most companies looked at how things were done ten years ago. A technician would be sent to a site with a handheld thermography camera and walk through the rows checking each panel.

Drone technology started to become more readily available, and the idea of sending a drone through the rows instead of a person was born. However, photogrammetry was only part of the story. AI was missing, and the opportunity to convert these images into a map which is much more visual and compelling.

If a human decides, he or she will look purely visually at the thermal signature. A computer will detect a panel, extrude all the thermal radiometric information, as every pixel in the photo has an absolute temperature. PID signatures are also really hard to detect compared to a hotspot. PID issues can be half a degree hotter than others, and a different approach is required to find them. We have the winning combination: technology, knowledge, support, and insights.

PES: Moving into the second half of 2019, what are your predictions for the solar industry in general and your company in particular this year?

VP: Drones will continue to play a bigger and bigger role. More industrial applications for drones are being uncovered, and digitalization will become an obligation rather than a need.

Many companies have tried using drones, but have been disappointed by the initial return on investment, and customers want better solutions and more discerning experiences. Quality is also key; we will continue to innovate and delight our customers.

We also see the looming EPC commissioning boom in Europe as an opportunity to expand further into Europe. The Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP) is one of six major initiatives of the Union for the Mediterranean, which aims to meet the major energy and climate challenges confronting the European Union and the wider Mediterranean region, in the coming decades.

In order to achieve these objectives, the MSP has set itself a target of developing 20 GW of new renewable energy production capacities, by 2020.

www.sitemark.com

WWW.PESSOLAR.COM 4

ASK THE EXPERTS: ASSET MANAGEMENT

Sitemark Pilot Network

Construction of solar sites can bemonitored easily.

Sitemark Fuse shows causes for issues aswell as an estimation of how much loss can beexpected.

A panel with suspected PID includingtemperature insights.