Automating the conceptual design of photovoltaic systems: now a reality for Enel Green Power

A photovoltaic system optimised both from a technical and an economic perspective: this is what Enel Green Power, the company within Enel Group that develops and manages activities for generating energy from renewable sources, has achieved thanks to the integrated platform developed by Exprivia.

A platform that is based on a micro-services architecture, that uses lambda and step functions hosted in the private AWS cloud of ENEL, leveraging the Kubernetes service for its simulations, developed in line with the indications of the Scrum-AGILE methodology, to automate the planning for a photovoltaic system in the Conceptual Design phase.

Previously, this phase involved the use of numerous stand-alone tools, which cannot be integrated and required human intervention: thanks to the new platform, the process is simplified and the risk due to human error is reduced.

The platform, known as IP Conceptual Design (Integrated Platform for PV Plant Conceptual Design), allows users to:

• develop a database containing all the information necessary for the conceptual phase of designing a photovoltaic system;
• simplify the modus operandi of specialists in the customer’s Solar Centre of Excellence;
• automate the validation, transfer and sharing of data between all players involved in the process;
• optimise and accelerate the technical/economic assessment of the bids from various suppliers for components and planning and construction services for the system;
• define, study and evaluate a large number of possible scenarios, which would not have been possible to manage under the traditional process;
• obtain technical data (technical specifications, layouts and BOQs) that are necessary for the tenders.

The digital transformation, in which Exprivia acted as the leader and strategic partner of Enel Green Power, resulted in the creation of a digital infrastructure based on:

• an advanced algorithm implemented through a meta-heuristic optimisation technique;
• a centralised information-sharing environment based on Opentext technology to quickly and easily manage activities between the various players involved in the process;
• a modular, scalable, integrable, maintainable and extendible micro-service structure.

The project, which began 2 years ago, led to the creation of an automated, modular, scalable and integrable process in which new functionalities were subsequently implemented to improve the User Experience and the integration between the various modules as well as to make the tool more flexible in deciding on the configuration of the photovoltaic system.

As a result of the digital infrastructure implemented, Enel Green Power has a new, optimised workflow in 2020, capable of minimising waste and errors.

An extremely flexible and, at the same time, secure solution, thanks to the unique and timely management of data and the process.