AlsoEnergy is constantly looking for ways to address evolving demands in the solar energy marketplace. Today AlsoEnergy announces another new option in the company product line: “PowerPortal” displays for community solar projects.
PowerPortal was designed to provide flexible display options for today’s community solar projects. These projects, sometimes called “solar gardens,” are commercial-sized arrays that provide shared access to solar power for multiple electricity customers. In this way, commercial and residential end users who are not able to install a rooftop array can benefit from solar power resources.
Community solar opens the door for a wide range of user agreements, sometimes arising from a single array. Some power customers may purchase small “allocations” or “subscriptions” directly from an asset manager for the full array. In other cases, a customer such as a property owner may purchase shares of solar generation with the intention to resell electricity to tenants or other end users with Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
Solar monitoring technology has been challenged to create meaningful displays and reports reflecting the complex mix of users and financial contracts in community solar projects. Generally speaking, monitoring applications are built to give customers access to data from a full site; not fractional allocations within a site. The problem is further complicated when one end user may be receiving power from several allocations, or when a single PPA reseller must manage multiple customer allocations. The challenge is greater yet when these allocations have different rate schedules and contract timelines.
PowerPortal is the first product created specifically to provide community solar customers with a direct link to current information about their energy investment. This web-based end user display gives access to real-time production data and financial calculations for allocations within community solar projects. End users see data for their own allocations only; they cannot access data for other allocations associated with the garden.
For end users and PPAs with multiple allocations, PowerPortal makes it possible to group designated allocations into single overview displays (rather than looking at each allocation individually). Versatile PowerPortal displays can even show complete balance sheets for grouped allocations with varying time-of-use rate sheet calculations, and can keep track of different contract start and end dates.
The benefits of PowerPortal displays are compelling. SunShare, one of the largest and most experienced community solar companies in the U.S., recently tried PowerPortal; they are now standardizing on AlsoEnergy as the preferred monitoring provider for all community solar projects moving forward. “We need a product that makes it easy for end users to connect with production and financial data for their allocations” says SunShare Director of Engineering Jean-Paul La Marche. “PowerPortal from AlsoEnergy fits our needs perfectly. No other product was even close.”
For those who are developing or managing community solar projects, PowerPortal offers the opportunity to customize displays with their own branding, creating a true white-labeled product offering for their energy customers. PowerPortal displays may be paired with either of the base monitoring platforms from AlsoEnergy: PowerTrack or DECK Monitoring.