Key Performance Indicators Support Renewable Asset Management

Renewable energy investments will continue to grow across mature and emerging economies, reiterating the need for asset optimization and performance. Resiliency of renewable energy assets is one of the most important operations and maintenance (O&M) focus points, as accessibility to these assets remains low and asset managers face significant O&M challenges.

Quantifying Metrics Help Performance

The financial benefits of renewable energy assets are not the sole measure of performance. Asset operators have to ensure that their investment is delivering maximum value. Key performance indicators (KPIs) define the commercial and financial implications in case an asset does not perform. Asset performance management (APM) contracts can offer service providers a holistic approach to strategically manage risks and returns for asset owners. For most installations of renewables, operators are aware of contractual obligations that OEMs and project developers have to meet. Quantifying key metrics can compare performance across disparate assets; defining, measuring, and reporting on KPIs are key elements of asset management. Some of the critical KPIs identified through APM contracts include the following: 

• Availability guarantees: APM contracts usually come with availability guarantees and minimum downtime benchmarks. Availability guarantees measure the time that the asset is operating against the time it is offline. This KPI is used to identify assets that are prone to failures and breakdowns.
  
• Response time: APM providers need to ensure that they can quickly resolve outages and reduce downtime, especially since these assets are usually installed at off-grid locations.
  
• Mean time between failures (MTBF): Accurate forecasting is beneficial for maintaining low costs and decreasing failure intervals. Optimized inventory management would also enable operators to keep MTBF low and avert power outages.
  

According to a recent blog by Guidehouse Insights, technology accelerators can help break down the difference between expected and actual performance across different asset types while identifying the causes of performance loss. Technology accelerators have the potential to optimize asset performance while providing digital capabilities to support O&M. Asset managers should identify and implement digitally enabled O&M activities that synchronize production and balance the energy demand and consumption curve while offering the best asset management services.