Equipment Operation, Safety Guidelines, and Maintenance Schedule for Photovoltaic Power Plants

1. Electrical Performance Testing Equipment

• Core Function: Applies varying voltages to PV modules and measures corresponding currents to plot I-V curves, accurately determining key electrical parameters such as maximum power point (Pmax), open-circuit voltage (Voc), and short-circuit current (Isc). Used to diagnose performance degradation caused by aging, microcracks, hot spots, and shading.
• Safety Guidelines: Wear insulated gloves and protective goggles; avoid direct contact with live terminals; ensure module temperature is stable before testing to prevent parameter deviations due to high temperatures; testing is prohibited when irradiance is below 400W/m².
• Maintenance Schedule: Full testing before commissioning; quarterly sampling of 5%-10% modules during operation; annual full-site testing.

• Core Function: Generates surface temperature distribution images based on infrared radiation principles, efficiently identifying abnormal temperature rises such as overheated junction boxes, hot spots, and failed bypass diodes.
• Safety Guidelines: Maintain a safety distance of at least 1 meter; avoid proximity to high-voltage equipment; testing is prohibited during rainy or snowy weather or when module surfaces are wet.
• Maintenance Schedule: Monthly full-site infrared scanning; weekly testing during high-temperature and high-load operation periods.

• Core Function: Collects and analyzes grid-side voltage fluctuations, frequency deviations, harmonic content, and power factor in real time, ensuring output power meets national grid connection standards and avoiding penalties or grid disconnection accidents due to power quality issues, while assisting in optimizing inverter operating strategies.
• Safety Guidelines: Disconnect relevant power supplies before wiring; connect voltage and current circuits according to regulations to prevent short circuits; operations should be conducted by two people working together, one operating and one supervising; equipment grounding terminals must be reliably grounded.
• Maintenance Schedule: Full testing before grid connection; semi-annual testing during operation; testing as required by grid dispatch.

• Core Function: The insulation resistance tester measures the insulation resistance of cables, module frames, and junction boxes to ground, assessing leakage risk and preventing electric shock and equipment damage. The grounding resistance tester checks the grounding resistance of key equipment such as PV supports, inverters, and box-type transformers, ensuring reliable discharge of lightning and fault currents for safe system operation.
• Safety Guidelines: Power must be disconnected and verified before testing; capacitive equipment must be fully discharged; personnel must not touch tested equipment during testing; for grounding tests, ensure test electrodes are inserted deep enough into the soil to avoid poor contact.
• Maintenance Schedule: Full testing before commissioning; annual testing before the thunderstorm season during operation; retesting immediately after grounding system modifications.

2. Structural Defect Detection and Inspection Tools

• Core Function: Applies forward bias to modules in a dark environment and uses high-sensitivity cameras to capture electroluminescence images, clearly revealing internal micro-defects such as microcracks, fragments, and broken grids. Serves as a core technical means for module quality acceptance, fault location, and warranty claims.
• Safety Guidelines: Operation must be conducted at night or in shaded environments; inspect cable insulation before applying voltage to prevent leakage; operators must wear high-voltage warning signs, and unauthorized personnel must not approach.
• Maintenance Schedule: Sampling of 5% upon module arrival; full testing after installation; sampling of 10% every two years during operation; immediate testing for faulty modules.

• Core Function: Integrates high-definition visible light cameras, infrared thermal imagers, or EL modules to conduct automated inspections of PV arrays along preset routes, identifying surface contamination, shading, damage, displacement, and thermal anomalies, while automatically generating inspection reports to significantly improve detection efficiency and reduce labor costs.
• Safety Guidelines: Declare airspace before flight; avoid restricted zones; check battery level, propeller condition, and GPS signal; flight altitude must not be lower than 10 meters, and stay away from high-voltage lines; flight is prohibited in severe weather.
• Maintenance Schedule: Weekly automated inspections; immediate inspections after strong winds, dust storms, or heavy rain; comprehensive maintenance every quarter.

• Core Function: Accurately measures module installation tilt angle, row spacing, and array layout precision to ensure compliance with engineering design specifications. Installation angle deviations directly affect solar radiation reception efficiency, while insufficient spacing can cause shading and impact power generation performance.
• Safety Guidelines: Do not point lasers directly at eyes; be aware of footing safety during measurement to avoid stepping on modules; wear safety belts when working at heights.
• Maintenance Schedule: Full measurement during installation; annual testing during operation; retesting immediately after array adjustments.

3. Cleaning and Environmental Monitoring Equipment

• Core Function: Automatically moves along module surfaces, removing dust, bird droppings, and other pollutants through brushing, spraying, or air flow, reducing light obstruction and improving power generation efficiency. Supports scheduled or light-intensity-triggered modes for unmanned cleaning operations.
• Safety Guidelines: Check track fixation before startup to prevent slippage; personnel must not approach the operating area during cleaning; stop operation during rainy weather or when module temperatures are too high to prevent glass cracking.
• Maintenance Schedule: Daily automated cleaning; weekly inspection of brush wear and nozzle blockages; comprehensive mechanical and electrical inspection every quarter.

• Core Function: Uses high-pressure water flow or specialized cleaning brushes to manually clean stubborn stains or localized contaminated areas, avoiding damage to glass surfaces and ensuring module light transmittance.
• Safety Guidelines: Disconnect inverter AC-side power before cleaning; use deionized or softened water to prevent scale buildup; control water pressure at 0.4-0.6MPa to avoid impact damage to modules; cleaning is prohibited during high-temperature periods (10:00-14:00) to prevent thermal stress cracking.
• Maintenance Schedule: 1-2 times per month depending on pollution levels; increase frequency after rainy seasons or dust storms.

• Core Function: Collects real-time data on ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar irradiance, and module backsheet temperature, used to analyze the impact of temperature on power generation performance, optimize cleaning cycles, and serve as a reference for equipment overheating warnings.
• Safety Guidelines: Power must be disconnected during installation and maintenance; safety belts must be worn during high-altitude work; maintenance is prohibited during thunderstorms.
• Maintenance Schedule: Daily data verification; quarterly cleaning of sensor surfaces; annual calibration by metrology institutions.

4. Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Management Platform

• Data Integration and Intelligent Analysis: Aggregates data from various testing equipment, using AI algorithms to identify performance degradation trends and high-risk areas for hot spots.
• Fault Warning and Work Order Closure: Automatically triggers fault alarms (such as hot spots, microcracks, inverter offline), generates and assigns maintenance work orders, shortening response cycles.
• Power Generation Forecasting and Operational Optimization: Combines weather forecasts with equipment status to simulate power generation under different strategies, optimizing inverter scheduling and cleaning plans.
• Remote Monitoring and Asset Visualization: Monitors power plant operating status in real time through cloud platforms, accesses historical data and reports, enabling centralized cross-regional management and reducing operation and maintenance costs.
• Safety Guidelines: Set multi-level user permissions to prevent unauthorized access; use encrypted protocols for data transmission; regularly back up databases to prevent data loss; system maintenance should be conducted after switching to backup servers.
• Maintenance Schedule: Daily system status inspection; weekly data backup; quarterly software patch updates; annual comprehensive security audit and performance optimization.

5. Summary