Using Fleet or Dashboard Tools to monitor Solar Production

For installers and site managers when utilising the Fleet or web Dashboard Tools to remotely confirm inverter is working at the expected level or investigate grid-fault without being physically present on sites or logging in to different platforms.

The Fleet and web Dashboard inside the wattwatchers.app are cloud-based solutions to remotely confirm the inverter is working at the expected level or investigate grid-fault (e.g., grid over-voltage), without the hassle of physically visiting the sites or logging in to different inverter platforms across your fleet.

Checking Solar Generation data via Fleet using 'Live energy data'

If you have access to multiple Fleets there will be a Fleet button with a drop-down menu that allows you to select which Fleet you wish to view and manage:



Now that you are working with the intended Fleet:

  1. Go to the Devices tab
  2. Select the device you wish to view 
  3. On the right-hand side of the list item, click the button to access the drop-down menu
  4. Click the 'Live energy data' option


For this example, we’ll be using the ‘Yesterday’ instead of ‘Last 5 min’ view to see more relevant data.



From the image above, the solar generation data is visible (labelled “CH 6: 6.6kW Solar” in the chart above), alongside the exports which are visible as negative values on the Grid Connect circuit (“CH 1: Whole of site consumption” in the chart above). As you can see, the chart is quite crowded when every channel is turned on.

‘Disable’ other circuits on the chart by clicking on the slider next to each channel name for a clearer graph.

 


The previous image above (↑) shows us a pretty typical solar curve across a day. However, the following image below (↓) tells us there may be an issue with the solar generation issue as the Auditor is still receiving data, however, the solar generation data has been flat. Note that the Y-axis scale of the chart is very small, so this small dip is minute and can be interpreted pretty much as “zero.”

Wattwatchers devices do not use a threshold to hide small data fluctuations, so data is presented as it is recorded by the device, which can sometimes be visible as this sort of “noise” in a chart. See the following image below (↓).

Checking Solar Generation data via the web Dashboard

To check the Solar Generation data via the web Dashboard you need access to all the sites/devices that you want to check.


See our detailed Dashboard User Guide for more information.


Inside the wattwatchers.app and select the Dashboard tool.


Make sure that you are looking at the desired site, then look at the Consumption tab (you may need to click the tab to get it to show) and confirm whether the Solar Generation data is present.



This is also useful to navigate between sites that you have access to.


If the Solar Generation data is flat as shown in the following image below (↓), it is likely that there is an issue with the inverter if the inverter has been reporting correct data in the past.





If you are seeing a bow shape Solar Generation curve as shown in the following image below (), it is likely that the inverter is operating correctly.


That being said, do confirm whether the peak point of the Solar Generation curve is approximately similar to the AC rating of the inverter. You may want to reach out to your Solar PV system installer should it be significantly lower than the AC rating of the inverter.


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