A solar plant has no moving parts, so it is easy to assume it looks after itself. In practice, plants that are left alone quietly lose generation every year – through dust, loose connections, failed strings, inverter trips and vegetation. Industry experience suggests poor O&M can cost 3–8% of annual generation.
On a 1 MW plant producing around 15 lakh units a year, a 5% loss is roughly 75,000 units. At a commercial tariff, that is several lakh rupees every year – far more than the cost of a good O&M contract.
What good O&M looks like
Preventive maintenance. Scheduled inspection of modules, structures, connectors, inverters, transformers and earthing – catching problems before they cause downtime.
Corrective maintenance. When monitoring raises an alarm, a technician diagnoses the root cause and fixes it, and the repair is logged so recurring faults can be spotted.
Cleaning that matches the site. Dust levels vary widely between locations and seasons. Cleaning schedules should be based on how quickly modules actually get dirty, not a fixed calendar.
Monitoring and reporting. Daily generation tracking, and monthly reports on performance ratio and plant availability, so owners can see exactly how their asset is performing.
Diagnostics. Thermal imaging and IV curve testing find hotspots, damaged cells and weak strings that are invisible to the naked eye.
Comprehensive or non-comprehensive?
A comprehensive contract covers manpower, spares and consumables for a fixed annual fee – the O&M provider carries the risk. A non-comprehensive contract covers skilled manpower and services, with spares billed as used. The right choice depends on whether you prefer budget certainty or control over procurement.
Altura’s O&M experience
Our team has expertise in managing more than 50 MW of O&M on a single parcel, and Altura has recently been awarded 20 MW of O&M in Gujarat and across India. We maintain plants we build – and plants built by others.
Talk to us about O&M for your plant.
