About Us
The scenario before us is an enormous number of PV plants in Italy and Europe where the problem is not installing the modules and connecting them together, but making them profitable over time.
We also understood that we can only do it by uniting three worlds.
Three worlds coming together
SunGuard Energy's IT specialists, in addition to talking about Cloud, API, cybersecurity and KPIs, now know well what a Performance Ratio is and know how to get the same information from a Sungrow inverter and an SMA inverter that speak two incompatible languages.
We have wired strings, connected interfaces, read single-line diagrams, done revamping, seen dirty modules, burnt MC4 connectors and fuses, inverters in derating, solved communication problems on RS485 wiring. Today we also know which Modbus registers to collect on a device for central plant control, and we saw SunSpec come into being.
Electronics experts who know well that this hardware must live in an environment at 65 degrees and that, without optical ports, the installer would not have an easy time configuring a datalogger or installing a weather station.
Origin
The story
Together come electricians with years on site managing O&M contracts, where they cut their teeth wrestling with devices that refused to communicate; IT specialists who spent the night with a laptop resting on a cardboard box, inside an electrical substation, developing new firmware; electronics experts who saw LTE routers deform inside a medium-voltage substation.
The idea came to us spontaneously. If we design a monitoring system with suitable hardware and intelligent alerting, we make the installer happy and the owner does not lose a single euro.
We had a van, the chance to get our hands on a PV plant and a small workshop to work in. Repeated testing and testing, and the system starts running. The first customers arrive, we study the logistics, we define the barcodes, until we place our servers next to Amazon's. Today we are the fastest monitoring system, with impressive computing power. At trade fairs we meet installers who say “we want the best, we only install SunGuard Energy” and sales reps from electrical material distributors who, reading our business card, exclaim “SunGuard, who doesn't know SunGuard Energy!”.
This is who we are.
Operations center
Francesco: «Hi Roberto, did you also see plant 3024?»
Roberto: «Yes Francesco, the PR is 7% below expectations based on satellite data. Here we installed our Hall-effect boards for string monitoring just last month, and I can see 5 strings are under-current. The system detected a reduction in average amperages but no blown fuses. No inverter in derating. The firmware was updated just yesterday and the module temperature is within normal range.»
Francesco: «Ok. Then I'd say we bring forward the module cleaning and inform the customer.»
Roberto: «Yes, I agree. I'll open a medium-priority ticket and have Elena inform the customer.»
Francesco: «Ok. Let's catch up later.»