Customer testimony
S4E Apex Energies

« There have always been many challenges in terms of monitoring of photovoltaic power plants. »
Alexandre Volpato – Apex Energies tells us more about his expectations.

Our first challenge is flexibility. Above all, it means adapting the working environment to each of our power plants in order to obtain different analyses, whether we are monitoring more traditional power plants or rather high-voltage power plants, in self-consumption, or according to the wishes of our customers.

The second issue is customization and, consequently, the fact that the tool can be adapted as we use it. We have our own way of operating power plants, which is probably different from other solar developers. It is important to prioritize our needs within the tool, but also important to have a customizable workflow: in this respect, the CMMS is integrated with our accounting processes.

3rd issue: automation. We are managing a very large number of sites with a limited number of people. We therefore need semi-automated tools and alarms, which allow us to structure and facilitate the work of the operations managers. This requires specificity and depth of analysis systematized in our working environment.

It is also interesting to be able to detect problems as accurately as possible and in as many plants as possible, and as standardized as possible. Speaking of standardization, the term is important for Apex Energies, we have a vision of the photovoltaic market as a mass market and this aspect is major in our structuring. In Energysoft we have found a solution that fits our vision.

How does Energysoft help to better manage these issues ?

Energysoft is a tool that can be fully customized by the user. We have control over all the features : this is crucial. The tool is very flexible, we can, for example, activate or deactivate alarms, have a view of each plant.
Customization and therefore settings are essential assets of the software for us.

What if we had to choose just one feature?

Beyond the daily use of the software, it is important to summarize all the elements (indicators, production data, etc.) and to be able to extract reports from our solar sites portfolio. The customization is also a real asset for the monitoring of our plants. For example, we can collect information and then process and structure it as we wish: this is essential!

We have also adopted a new feature that has been developed recently: diagnosis, which we also find very relevant because it allows us to make more precise analyses.
Let’s not forget the many features we use every day.

What we appreciate with S4E, beyond the reactivity on the developments, is the quality of listening and the will to answer the users’ needs. It is in this relationship that we find the productivity gains necessary for the evolution of our business.