Joe Brotherton
Advanced Energy Inc.
Joe Brotherton is the National O&M Sales Manager for
Advanced Energy's Solar Energy Business Unit.
He has been at AEI since 2009 and has been helping the development and leading the sales group for the
O&M programs that the company offers. Advanced Energy has become a leader in PV plant operations and maintenance
and has over 300MW under maintenance contracts.
The O&M programs AEI offers are able to be applied to any PV system across the country and can be customized
to meet any range of scope of services needed.
Prior to AEI, Joe managed the western region for the Tool Automation Division at Brooks Automation.
Joe brings years of experience in managing OEM and end-user customers and that experience has transitioned
nicely into the many layers of PV site operation.
Impact of O&M on PV Plants
Abstract: Ongoing operations and maintenance
(O&M) can have an impact on how well a PV site performs, yet system designers don't
often give adequate consideration to O&M when system design work is initially performed
particularly the O&M requirements of balance of system (BoS) components.
The primary reason designers do not include O&M of BoS components in the planning phase
is simply due to the lack of benchmarking data; there just isn't a mechanism to provide comprehensive,
industry-wide information in a lessons-learned format.
Having this kind of information would enable designers to see specific issues,
potential impacts on power production, probable root causes and efficient ways to remedy them.
A robust preventive maintenance plan can, often times,
lead to lower corrective maintenance costs.
This would help to diminish the need for maintenance reserves and a world of unknowns.