What a good DGR includes
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Generation summary | Export energy at the main meter, budget for the day, variance (MWh and %) |
| Resource | Plane-of-array and global irradiation, peak irradiance, average module and ambient temperature |
| Performance | PR, CUF (AC and DC), specific yield |
| Availability | Plant availability (PA) and grid availability (GA), with downtime events |
| Losses | Energy lost by category: downtime, grid, soiling, other |
| Alarms and tickets | New, open and closed issues, with owners |
| Maintenance | Preventive tasks completed versus scheduled, cleaning progress |
| Remarks | Weather events, curtailment instructions, anything unusual |
Plant availability vs grid availability
These two are often confused, and they are frequently written into O&M contracts:
- Plant availability (PA) measures whether the plant's own equipment was available to generate. Downtime caused by inverter, transformer or other plant faults reduces PA.
- Grid availability (GA) measures whether the grid was available to take the power. Grid outages and external evacuation constraints reduce GA, not PA.
Availability = available hours ÷ total hours in the generating windowMany contracts weight availability by capacity and count only daylight hours; use your contract's definition.
Worked example
Worked example · illustrative numbersOne line from a portfolio DGR
| Plant | Export (MWh) | Budget (MWh) | PR | PA | GA | Main issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Site 14 (50 MWp) | 236.0 | 244.5 | 76.1% | 98.9% | 100% | INV-07 down from 11:10; WO raised |
The reader immediately sees the plant was 3.5% under budget, the grid was fine, and the shortfall is a known plant issue that already has an owner.
Common DGR problems
- Built by hand. Copying numbers from SCADA exports into Excel every morning is slow and error-prone.
- No variance explanation. A number without a reason prompts phone calls.
- Inconsistent definitions. Different plants calculating PR or PA differently make the portfolio view meaningless.
- Data gaps hidden. If communication was lost, say so, rather than reporting zeros as generation.
How nxtGrid helps
How nxtGrid helps
- Daily generation reports generated automatically for every plant, with consistent definitions
- Portfolio reports, loss charts and loss reports alongside the DGR
- Data availability monitoring per device, so gaps are visible rather than hidden
- Plant and portfolio reports downloadable by component and frequency