A proposed set of indicators for evaluating the performance of the operation and maintenance of photovoltaic plants

As photovoltaic plants (PV) age, the need for efficient monitoring of operations & maintenance (O&M) increases, helping to understand the situation of the plant, identify problems and propose solutions for future strategies. In this context, the objective of this paper is to propose a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), responsable to evaluate O&M performance in PV power plants, considering their importance and complexity mensuration levels. After refining and validating a set of KPIs using Delphi method with industry specialists, the KPIs are classified by energy performance assessment and O&M services assessment. Subsequently, the levels of importance and complexity of measurement are evaluated with stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method. Finally, after obtaining this information, an importance-complexity matrix is developed, thus contemplating the proposed set of KPIs. This study presents a comprehensive set of 25 KPIs capable of quantitatively measuring the O&M performance of a PV plant. The results show that the KPIs, Performance Ratio and Spare Parts Availability are the most important in this evaluation, and KPI Contractual Availability presents greater complexity in measuring its parameters. Based on the importance-complexity matrix, it is possible to verify that the KPI, Schedule Compliance stands out compared to the others, presenting a high level of importance and a low level of complexity in its measurement. The information resulting from this study seeks to help PV plant managers to select the appropriate KPIs to measure the status of the O&M management of the PV plant.