Alcazar Energy is one of the largest independent renewable energy developers and producers in the Middle East and North Africa. The company needed a solution capable of unifying the management of its mixed portfolio composed of 131 MW wind power and 280 MW photovoltaic solar energy.
In 2018 GreenPowerMonitor, a DNV company, launched its GPM Horizon solution, the first multi-technology monitoring platform for integrated solar, wind, and storage energy systems. Among its many advantages, GPM Horizon also enables the mixed portfolios management in a scalable and remote way, integrating the latest technologies and renewable systems in one single solution.
Challenges overcome
Alcazar Energy to manage its wide mixed portfolio decided to rely on GPM Horizon because the solution would have helped to face various challenges such as:
- Real-time monitoring of the main parameters and advanced data analysis
- Asset management, financial and performance KPIs monitoring
- Creation of tickets for alarms and preventive and corrective O&M actions
- Integration of the signal from the wind turbine generators of different OEMs, due to the complex coordination and exchange of data between the parties involved.
All these challenges have been successfully overcome thanks to the GPM Horizon solution.
Third-party integration
One of the most interesting challenges of integrating the Alcazar Energy portfolio has been to centralize the management of 3 third-party Power Plant Controllers (PPC) in the GPM SCADA solution for a project in Egypt.
To do this, GPM has developed a specific software capable of unifying the 3 third-party PPCs and complying with the required communication protocols and data flow.
This ad hoc development for Alcazar Energy has offered a seamless integration experience that allows full control of PV plants complying with the Egyptian grid code and EETC standards, even remotely.
The benefits
The installation of GPM Horizon as an integrated monitoring solution for its mixed portfolio has allowed Alcazar Energy to unify all aspects of the management and control of its renewable assets.
According to Rob Lowe, O&M Coordinator from Alcazar Energy:
“GPM are a very collaborative company; as the end-user of their product, they listen to our feedback and use it to improve their platform, which we use on a daily basis to monitor our plants.”
As stated by Sergi Bosque, Regional Manager MEA & Africa:
“The entire GPM team has worked and continues to work to ensure the smooth development of the integration process.”
The GPM team has supported Alcazar Energy integration process all along with the life of the projects in terms of problem-solving, customization of KPIs, dashboards, ticketing and reporting systems; we solve also any technical problem that may occur on the site.
GPM and Alcazar Energy: a continuous collaboration
As part of the Customer Advisory Board (CAB), GPM and Alcazar Energy have walked together on a journey that has continually improved the features of GPM Horizon from the UX and UI perspective.
Besides, GPM has reinforced its deep commitment to providing tailored monitoring solutions that are the cornerstone of a successful and optimized fleet and asset management platform for mixed renewable energy asset owners.
GreenPowerMonitor, a DNV company, has had the opportunity so far to collaborate with Alcazar Energy in 7 different projects, 2 wind farms and 5 photovoltaic solar plants.