Solar Services

AETI Services – Basic through Complete Coverage, Your Way

American Electric Technologies, Inc. (AETI) offers a variety of service frameworks developed against the specific needs of utilities, developers and owner/operators to meet their solar farm construction, operations & maintenance objectives.

Configuration, Start-Up & Commissioning Service

AETI offers a unique service that starts with customer-specific equipment configuration to install utility-specific monitoring & control hardware and software before factory acceptance testing & pre-commissioning.  Once they theequipment is installed and cabled on site by the contractor, AETI is able to perform testing and operations commissioning from the combiners through the inverters and through the substation to the point of grid connection.  AETI has over 20+ service technicians with on average of over 20+ years of power distribution, conversion and control system start-up & commissioning for voltages from 600 Volts DC up to 500 kV AC.  Pricing for this service is directly related to the customer’s configuration, start-up and commissioning requirements.

On-Demand Electrical Service

AETI offers a 24 by 7 Hotline to respond to customer’s request for on-demand service typically for unplanned outages.  Labor, packaging & freight, and travel & living expenses are invoiced according to our standard rate schedule.  On-Demand Services is also provided for items not covered and not included under equipment start-up & commissioning, warranty coverage or other agreements, projects or programs. On-Demand Services may also be quoted as a project to address rebuilding portions of a solar farm due to vandalism or acts of god.  

Standard and Extended Warranty

All AETI equipment is built with electrical and mechanical components having a known supplier delivery and electrical performance history over the past 20 years or more.  However, to be sensitive to the warranty cost requirements of different utilities, developers and owner/operators, AETI offers a variety of warranty policies with progressively higher levels of warranty coverage and pricing.

As a standard policy, AETI offers a warranty of 1 year covering non-consumable parts.  This coverage is popular with owner/operators trained and skilled in low and medium voltage power conversion, distribution & control equipment servicing, and have been certified by AETI as Tier 2 Authorized Service Representatives.

However, most developers and financiers typically budget complete replacement of solar inverters every 5 years to ensure their electrical balance of plant maintenance costs are covered – an expensive practice, but one financiers were able to bank on and sleep soundly at night.  One way of offsetting such costs is to purchase a solar inversion system with a pre-integrated design and built with utility grade construction.  Another way is to purchase one of two types of 5, 10, 15 or 20+ Year term warranty policies for the inverter power modules: Remaining Value or 100% Value Coverage over the term of the warranty.  

Remaining Life Coverage is a warranty policy in which replacement value maintains a downward pace with the linear depreciation of the inverter power modules.  This is standard warranty practice for the solar industry – one that exchanges reduced warranty costs upfront, but with increasing exposure to replacement costs over the term of the warranty. 

100% Value Coverage is that for over the term of the warranty policy the inverter power modules are 100% covered. The warranty is greater in price than Remaining Life – but the solar inversion station power modules are completely protected from replacement costs over the term of the warranty.  And since AETI has a proven 20+ Year track record with its proprietary Modular NEMA 3R system construction that is deployed in every environmental climate of the world – only replacement of the power module is necessary, unlike competitive inverter systems that need to be completely replaced, enclosure and all.  There is no better warranty policy – or inverter system design & construction – on the market. 

Another feature of AETI’s Extended Warranty is customer-specified levels of Inflation Protection of up to 10% per year inflation rate protection on labor and/or component replacement costs, resulting in a highly contained and predictable maintenance cost profile over the term of the warranty policy for the customer. 

Selection of the inflation protection level and payment of a warranty policy is done from the time of purchase up until the equipment leaves the factory.  Either coverage policy requires a two times per year Preventative Maintenance Services Agreement to audit and maintain the condition of the equipment.

Finally, both types of extended warranty coverage can be implemented for combiners, switchgear and substations, for additional replacement cost avoidance over the electrical balance of plant systems investment.

Preventative Maintenance Agreement

The Preventative Maintenance Agreement provides twice annual scheduled preventative maintenance cycles.  The agreement includes labor and travel & living expenses for the bi-annual scheduled cycles, replacement of consumable parts scheduled for preventative maintenance; and functional test and assessment of non-consumable parts and their replacement and invoice, as part of the standard agreement.  During the second maintenance cycle, a full System Condition Audit is performed to assess the future probability of potential issues, and is also a prerequisite for maintaining an extended warranty on the inverter power modules. 

The Preventative Maintenance Agreement may be paid each year upfront according to a schedule over the term of the agreement that matches the term of the warranty policy.  The agreement may also be paid in full upfront as a warranty policy to cover labor and parts over the term of the warranty.  When done in conjunction using PV modules supplied with a 20+ Year extended warranty, the solar farm is converted into one saleable asset with O&M expenses paid upfront, resulting in limited or near zero O&M costs to the customer.
 
Part Spares Program

The number and type of Part Spares maintained is based upon AETI equipment and component supplier experience.  During equipment servicing, parts are locally drawn from this stock and then replenished as necessary to ensure rapid repair time.  AETI can provide an appropriate storage facility for the Part Spares on-site, or the customer may leverage their facility for the storage. 

Part Spares replacements pricing can be also be Inflation Protected up to 10% annually and the program may include any mix of non-consumable parts and consumable parts.  Preventative maintenance is necessary for some stored parts, like electrolytic capacitors, which need to periodically charged and discharged to ensure their electrolyte remains functional over time.

SCADA Integration Project

A SCADA Integration Project may be necessary for the integration of all site equipment to be placed under the command and control of a Utility’s SCADA System via protocols such as DNP3 and Modbus/TCP.  This includes monitoring systems such as security & fire detection as well as combiner, inverter, switchgear and substation monitoring systems, and is accomplished using a combination of utility & industrial based programmable logic controllers and human machine operator interfaces.  Projects typically include remote monitoring and control of combiners, inverters and substations regarding inverter or substation on/off, inverter power output level from 0 to 1 MW, inverter VAR compensation from 1 to 0 pf across the time of day, or changing the soft-start ramp-up rate of inverter output power from 0 to up to 3000 seconds for the improvement of local grid stability.

Fleet Services Agreements

When a significant amount of equipment and electrical services are being purchased at one time or as part of a Strategic Sourcing Agreement, this custom company to company agreement allows the utility, developer and owner/operator to bundle warranties and technical services into one predictable profile of operations & maintenance costs for the duration of the agreement across the electrical balance of plant systems, from combiners through inverters through substation to the point of connection on the grid.  This approach results in one equipment supply & electrical services contract with AETI with no finger-pointing from PV modules to the point of interconnection.
 
In addition, customers may develop an agreement that utilizes a mix of local AETI-trained Authorized Service Representatives for Tier 1 Installation & Support along with AETI Tier 2 Commissioning & Support Service Technicians.  This optimizes initial construction and installation costs of the solar farm, while minimizing and containing the operations & maintenance costs over the lifecycle of the solar farm.  This approach also reduces servicing response time to keep revenue generation loss at a minimum, while utilizing AETI’s 25+ average years of experience service technicians when needed.