In a typical solar project, the Acceptance Performance Test is the final major hurdle after commissioning, before the facility is turned over to the owner. The top-level report is circulated, milestone payments are made, and the report is placed in the O&M team’s filing cabinet. This is a huge, missed opportunity!
A well-done test gives you the cleanest, most accurate picture of how a plant is performing. Not only does the model track energy flow through the plant, but it also manages specifics such as sensor accuracy, control behavior, normalization, and facility-specific variations. This is exactly the type of Acceptance Performance Testing we perform, with models developed specifically to remain usable beyond COD.
This detailed Acceptance Performance Test Model is very valuable to the O&M team, which spends years rebuilding it after COD. Reusing the original Acceptance Test Model—and periodically reapplying it through structured Baseline Tests—eliminates the need for reinvention. Bringing the Test Model into O&M operations assessments provides a robust measurement and calculation process for month-by-month or year-by-year performance comparisons at the granular, detailed component level.
The effort to identify facility-wide and/or specific equipment issues is directly aligned with the original benchmark evaluation and the subsequent periodic Baseline Tests we support, highlighting overall and specific equipment variations in operational performance rather than broad, ambiguous system degradation.
The Test model and Test shouldn’t end up filed and used only as a top-level, final-numbers perspective; rather, they should serve as the foundation for running the plant O&M.
Would you like to learn how McHale & Associates, Inc. can help you with your testing? Contact our team to learn how we can support your facility’s testing needs and help turn performance benchmarks into lasting operational insight.