At WorkPack, we help many solar EPC project teams to streamline their project execution. Often the business owners and project managers ask us to standardize their work practices with WorkPack software. We have been doing this for a while for a range of different infra projects – oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, real estate etc. But we find it the easiest when working with solar EPC teams, due to the inherent standardization of solar power projects.

Compared to other traditional infra projects, solar power projects are essentially very similar to each other. This similarity is unmistakable for rooftop solar EPC projects. Generally, solar EPC scope of work is broken down into following phases –

• Engineering Design
• Procurement & Logistics
• Installation & Commissioning
• Maintenance & Support

Standardization originating from engineering design

Any solar PV power plant consists of solar photo voltaic (PV) panels, inverters, wires, cables and other accessories. In the first stage of solar EPC scope of work, electrical design engineers are responsible for deciding the exact technical specifications for these electrical items. Based on their design, structural engineers design the steel structures needed to support the power generating PV panels. Further civil engineers from the team estimate and specify the required civil works to be done.

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is generated as a result of this design engineering work. This project BOM captures all the material items needed for the new solar power generation project. Since procurement, logistics, installation and commissioning highly depend on the project BOM, it is an excellent representative of the project scope of work.

Solar project BOM is an excellent representative of the solar EPC scope of work.

The degree of similarity between project BOMs for different solar projects indicates the inherent potential of standardization. So if your engineering team is producing highly similar BOMs for different projects, you are well on track for standardization.

Factors affecting Bill of Materials

Design engineering and its output BOM are highly influenced by – project capacity, complexity, special requirements of increased efficiency, constraints of the available area, energy storage requirements etc.

For rooftop solar projects, project capacity stays in the kW range. These projects are also usually free from special requirements of high efficiency etc. Hence for rooftop solar projects can be relatively easily standardized.

Standardize procedures and work practices

Moreover, project managers and business owners can also standardize processes such as –

• Collecting information from customers (energy bill, subsidy documentation etc.)
• Site surveys and audits
• Interfacing with power distribution companies (for net metering etc.)
• Managing and evaluating vendor proposals

Focus on a specific type of projects (For example residential or commercial grid connected projects) will help installers in effectively setting up and implementing standard work procedures for their team.

Planning and managing of projects becomes easier with standardization. You can also leverage your standard work practices by implementing a software package to streamline project execution. This post has tips for you to find a project management software suited for solar EPC.

Importance of standardization for rooftop solar installers

Companies who specialize in commercial and residential solar rooftop projects, are executing a large number of small scale solar projects. As a result, you have to deal with a large quantity of data to run any kind of business analysis. And lack of standardized processes will make it difficult for you to get insights into how your business is operating.

Standardization of project execution will always make it easier to track and manage a large number of small projects.

WorkPack has already helped a number of utility and rooftop solar EPC players to standardize and streamline their project management with WorkPack. For us, it has been a good learning experience to see how inherent standardization in solar projects makes it easier for training the solar EPC teams on a software platform.

Do you think WorkPack can help your team as well? Find out by setting up a free account. Let us know if you need any help or would like to schedule an online demo of WorkPack.