E-GADS! More paperwork, but what's the use?

By James Nagel, PE

NERC compliance is expanding its GADS code requirements to 20 MW facilities connected to the bulk power system starting in January of 2025. Okay, a lot to dig into there, let's start with the jargon:

• NERC = National Energy Regulatory Commission
• GADS = Generating Availability Data System
• BPS = Bulk Power System = Standard Language for "The Grid"

As of today, only 100+ MW solar plants are subject to these requirements. That means a massive expansion in the number of projects tracked by GADS is on the horizon.... And a new set of paperwork for asset owners.

Feeling nervous? Don’t stress. Meeting these requirements is important, but if you have a NERC license, you probably have this covered already.

First, if you’re not familiar with how GADS reporting works, I’ve outlined the process below.

If you are already familiar, scroll on, and let’s get nerdy about data. ?

What is it?

At a high-level, NERC wants better visibility on the performance, availability, and reliability of power generating assets on the Grid. With that data they can analyze events and benchmark projects across the operating portfolio. I’ve outlined this in more detail below, but for specific reporting guidelines and the NERC-provided templates, go to this NERC webpage.

Configurations Data

• Includes information about plant, inverter groups, and energy storage configurations.
• Must be reported when there are changes in the configuration, such as new equipment installations or modifications.

Specifics

• Plant Configuration: Requires information on the plant's name, location, total installed capacity (TIC), and other relevant details.
• Inverter Group Configuration: Involves specifying the number of inverters, their capacities, and operational characteristics like maximum and minimum operating temperatures.
• Energy Storage Group Configuration: Includes details on the capacity and energy ratings of energy storage systems.

Performance Data

• Involves monthly reporting of inverter group performance, including gross actual generation (GAG), net actual generation (NAG), and other key metrics.
• Data must be submitted beginning with the third full month after the commercial operating date (COD) of the inverter group.

Specifics

Performance data reporting focuses on the actual energy output and operational efficiency of the inverter groups:

• Gross Actual Generation (GAG): The total energy generated by the inverter group.
• Net Actual Generation (NAG): The energy delivered to the grid after accounting for internal consumption.
• Capacity Factors: Metrics such as the Resource Capacity Factor (RCF) and Standard Capacity Factor (SCF) help compare the performance of different solar generators.

Event Data

• Captures details of events affecting generation, such as forced outages, maintenance outages, and planned outages.
• Must include the event start and end times, cause codes, and contributing operating conditions.
• Involves monthly reporting of inverter group performance, including gross actual generation (GAG), net actual generation (NAG), and other key metrics.
• Data must be submitted beginning with the third full moon after the commercial operating date (COD) of the inverter group. It’s actually the third full month after COD, I’m just seeing if you’re paying attention.

Specifics

Event reporting is crucial for understanding and mitigating disruptions in solar generation:

• Event Types: Classified into forced outages, maintenance outages, and planned outages.
• Cause Codes: Used to identify the primary reason for each event, with contributing operating conditions providing additional context.
• Potential MWh Production Loss: Calculated to quantify the impact of each event on potential energy production.

Key Takeaways

• Accurate and timely reporting of solar generation data helps improve the reliability and security of the North American BPS.
• Detailed guidelines ensure consistency in data collection and reporting across different entities and inverter groups.
• Understanding the various data types, reporting schedules, and event classifications is essential for compliance with NERC's GADS reporting requirements.

The GADS Solar Generation Data Reporting Instructions provide a comprehensive framework for solar generation entities to contribute valuable data, enhancing the overall performance and reliability of the electrical grid.

You Can Do This

First, the information required to meet GADS requirements is collected by almost all asset owners and, for the most part, they can read it all off of their inverter dashboards.

From where I sit, the hard part is assigning a GADS code to every event. If you aren’t already familiar with them, then you have a whole lexicon to learn by January (See Appendix K of the GADS requirements).

But I have a gift for you. SolarGrade, HelioVolta’s field operations software, comes off-the-shelf with some industry best practice site visit frameworks for Golden Row QA/QC, Preventative Maintenance, IEC 62446, and 40 other off-the-shelf templates to dial in your fieldwork.

And I just made another gift for you. A SolarGrade framework that aligns with GADS codes for event reporting.?Just tag your failure event with our checklist and you’ll have your GADS code in one tap. No fuss.

Seriously? That’s it?

Okay so that’s what GADS codes are, but if I’m honest...

...the GADS data is pretty boring.

What can we really do with the data and is it precise enough?

I like the idea of standardizing reporting as a means of standardized data collection (have I told you about SolarGrade?), but these reporting standards are fairly coarse and, realistically, the GADS Cause Codes associated with events just locate the event, not the root cause. They tag the where, not the why.

For example, if I have a batch of PV modules with a consistent failure related to module soldering joints, I might tag this as Cause Code 24000, Contributing Factor 0, with a description of nonconforming module soldering, which is free form text, not data. Yes, a large language model (that’s code for AI) could scrape these and transform it into data with very limited success.

This failure would also need to be so severe that inverters would shutdown, dropping by 20 MW of the installed capacity. The system configuration would tag the associated inverter make and model, but only the module’s efficiency and temperature coefficient.

The module’s make and model are not required in configuration reporting, so, in analyzing this data, module serial defects across a portfolio would be assigned to the inverter-level rather than the module-level, which would be extremely misleading.

In other words, GADS codes limit their performance tracking to the inverter-level and don’t dig much deeper than that. Realistically, pushing these requirements across the entire grid is going to have a limitation like that. How deep can you realistically go for public-agency-driven reporting?

There is power in this data nonetheless. NERC has about 5,000 projects in their database and can garner insights from this through these GADS-defined datapoints, finding some common causes for underperformance.

But it doesn’t go far enough.

GADS can only help NERC track what assets are connected to the bulk power system, understand their performance at a monthly time interval, and classify outages at a coarse level. GADS codes do not help asset owners dig into their operating portfolio to find patterns of production loss and opportunities for improvement.

This is where SolarGrade Analytics, known as SolarFax, comes into play. Of the thousands of projects on SolarGrade, each configuration is tagged down to the module, inverter, BESS, and racking level. Issue granularity is precise and structured sufficiently for in-depth data analytics on specific projects and across entire portfolios.

kWh Analytics identified an 8% national underperformance across solar projects connected to the bulk power system and it’s SolarFax analytics that can help us close that costly gap. Check out the SolarGrade PV Health report to see what structured project data can unearth.

In the meantime, you’re invited to give our SolarGrade GADS site visit template a whirl. While you’re at it, check out the other fieldwork frameworks in our template library.

My bet?

You’re going to get a better understanding of your portfolio from every other tool in our platform than you will from GADS. Follow us at SolarGrade by HelioVolta to learn more about elevated asset care with SolarGrade. ?