VIZ-A-VIZ with Herve Bibollet, Managing Director, Webdyn

Q. In september 2015 the company entered Indian solar market with its two products WebdynSun and WebdynModbus. Please share us in detail about the products, its USP and how O&M companies can benefit from these products?

Webdyn develops and commercialises data loggers dedicated to the monitoring of solar installations of small or average sizes. These gateways enable to control the production and the consumption of solar energies. It allows:

– Automatic collection of functional parameters, job data and environment data of an installation

– Collection of the alarms on equipments

– Remote intervention on equipment

= > Optimisation of the production and the energetic level of consumption efficiency Two main products commercialised in India: 1/WebdynSun :

The WebdynSun gateway is used to monitor and collect data from a solar plant installation. The gateway brings together on a single unit all the indicators from the inverters, the electric meters and the environmental sensors (sunshine intensity, temperature, wind speed, etc.).

Functional advantages of the WebdynSun gateway:

– Possibility for the software editors to develop their of overlayer

– Flexibility regarding managed equipment, compatible with the main inverters of the market

– Frequency of data collection to monitor equipment

– Very low consumption of GPRS data – Up to 100 inverters monitor with a single gateway

– Plug and play gateway

– Management very flexible of the alarms, including power break. In such competitive market as India is, Webdyn has two interesting competitive advantages:

– High quality of service

– Robustness of equipment

= > high-end positioning which differentiate us from the competition.

2/WebdynModbus :

The WebdynModbus gateway is used to pilot or to collect data from all equipments which use the modbus communication protocol. On a single gateway there are one Modbus RTU or Modbus TCP interface and one GPRS interface to communicate with the information system.

Q. How does it monitor physical health and predict outputs of plants and devices? In what way this can help in maximizing performance of the plants

Regular issues on solar panels:

– Dust

– Bad configuration

= > Consequence: breakdown or dysfunction which can cost several thousand euros. Webdyn helps two types of customers:

– Large companies operating installations on multi-sites or constructions. Here the objective is to collect data from the field and to send it to their own information system.

– Software editors of data monitoring from PV installations.

The objective of our gateway is to collect heterogeneous field data and to send it to the information system to enable a preventive and curative remote maintenance of the installations and optimise their efficiency and their life expectancy. To enable it, Webdyn analyses 3 levels of data :

– The first level of data, and if you can collect only one you should collect this one, is the meters. The meters will provide you an explicit information which is the exact status of your production or consumption, and an implicit information which is: is it working or not ?

– So, to improve the quality of the monitoring, you need to access to the second level which is the parameters and alarms coming from the central device of the installation (inverters of solar plants, boilers or HVAC in buildings, etc.). With these informations you will have a much better view of your site situation. But still you will not exactly know if the performance is good or not.

– This is why you need to access to the third level of information if you want to have a real complete view. This level is constituted of all the environmental information, coming from sensors (irradiance, temperature, hygrometry, wind speed, etc.)

Our product enables to manage in a single way heterogeneous photovoltaic plants (various brands of inverters, meters and sensors).

It also enables to collect data for any portal: the one developed specifically by HERVE the customer or the one of the partner spe-cialized in the monitoring.

These three levels of data collected thanks to the WebdynSun enable the finest preventive and curative maintenance.

This accurate maintenance enables to:

– Increase considerably the production of the installation

– Decrease the maintenance cost – Increase the reactivity in front of breakdowns or dysfunctions Consequences on the solar installation:

– The duration of the life of equipments is longer

– The profitability of the installation is strongly increased

– Reduction of power failures

– Operational solar installations almost 100 % of time

Q. Does it detect a prolonged power cut? How does it warn the operator?

Yes, the WebdynSun gateway detects a prolonged power cut and automatically switches on the battery. Furthermore, the gateway sends an alarm to the information system of the client by GPRS, another alarm goes off when the power supply come back.

Q. What is the storage capacity in WebdynSun and how long it can store data?

Data is zipped and stored on a 100Mo space. For instance, total data of a 100KW solar power plant which collects data every 10 minutes can be stored at least during 6 months.

Q. What type of opportunity does the company see in the Indian market?

The growth of the solar energy on the Indian market is for us a chance to penetrate the Asia and to contribute to the Indian renewable energy development. That is why: From 2017 :

– First of all, the range of products proposed in India is going to extend in a data logger which communicate in radio frequencies to be used in the energy efficiency in a more global way = > wider cover of the monitoring of energy.

– Secondly, Webdyn is concerned about its integration into the local development and wants to follow the desire of the government to ” make in India “.

Indeed, Webdyn plans to manufacture locally its products commercialised in India.

– We are now opened to technological partnerships, in particular with the manufacturers of inverters and the developers of monitoring portals, to grow up our sales in indirect. In the medium term:

– Webdyn wants to become a major actor of the smart metering and the PV monitoring in India.

– To be solidly implanted in the landscape of the renewable energy in India

– Webdyn’s products present in projects of utility, supported by the Indian government to reach the objective “100GW on horizon 2020”

– Development of the office of Delhi and generation of direct and indirect jobs

Q. With already more than 600 sites set up across the country, the company is working with several clients in the area of Solar & Renewable energies, share us how has been the response so far and what new projects you are working on?

The response of the market is very positive since the beginning and continues to growth because the product perfectly answers to the Indian demand. So Webdyn still answers to monitoring offers from global actors on the rooftop market.

Q. Do Webdyn help in predictive maintenance?

As answered in the previous questions, the 3 levels of data collected enables to trigger alarms in the slightest dysfunction of the solar power plant. So the reaction of the administrator of the power plant can make in real time and prevent production shutdowns or enable a proactive maintenance of equipments, what increases their life expectancy, thus their profitability.

Q. Share us how Webdyn help its clients with monitoring management of their solar plants and collecting heterogeneous data on the field. Any new product (s) that you are coming up with this year specifically designed for the Indian market? Can you share some detail about the product(s)?

There is no design specifications because WebdynSun is multiprotocols, and so perfectly adapted to every markets. Howerver, Webdyn integrates mains inverter protocols specific to India.

Furthermore, India is a country which requires a technical quality and a quality of service. Our product WebdynSun joins completely in this line because it is a strong product which enables to set up services at diverse levels from the simple installation to the finest monitoring.

Q. According to cyber security experts solar is much prone to cyber-attacks, how does Webdyn take care of the data security for its customers?

WebdynSun is only one brick of the gobal monitoring solution, so we advise to our clients to secure the entire communication chain via the SIM card, which is sufficient to protect the whole chain.

However, the next version of the WebdynSun will integrate a level of security independent of the client.

Q. What type of monitoring analysis of the PV system is required to optimize the production, the output and the quality of service of a solar power plant?

To optimise the production, it is needed to have the 3 levels of data (as explained previously) to have the finest monitoring and compare the real performances from the field with the theoretical expected performances. This comparison is possible thanks to monitoring softwares.

Q. At the launch of WebdynSun and WebdynModbus here in India you said that the company is planning to manufacture its prod-ucts in India, where are you setting up your manufacturing facility? What is the progress so far and how soon will the manufacturing facility be operational?

Webdyn is concerned about its integration into the local development and wants to follow the desire of the government to ” make in India “.

Indeed, in view of the commercial success on 2016 in India, we are currently considering partnerships with equipment manufacturers in India to manufacture with them our products commercialized in India starting from this year.

Q. Can you name Indian inverter suppliers that are integrating Webdyn’s solution into theirs? What are the challenges are you facing with the inverter suppliers?

There are not inverter suppliers that are integrating our solution into theirs because we want to remain independent. However, the main suppliers recommend the WebdynSun in India.