Finding Optimal Solutions to Reduce Failures
Revitalizing with Minor Technical Improvements
– Shanshan Power Station, Xinjiang Region –
The solar power station in Shanshan, Xinjiang, completed in December 2011, has been in operation for nearly 10 years. Under the scorching heat and dust storms of the “Fire State” Turpan, the aging of power generation equipment has become quite severe. ,To address the issues caused by equipment aging failures and high failure rates,the station’s employees have leveraged their positions, brainstorming and utilizing their ingenuity,to continuously improve equipment operational efficiency through technological innovation and technical improvements, injecting new vitality into old equipment and actively helping the company reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Shanshan Power Station has a total of 687 combiner boxes. In 2020, after a centralized inspection of the entire site, it was found that 338 combiner boxes had communication interruptions. Once the communication of a combiner box is interrupted, it becomes impossible to determine whether each branch within the combiner box is generating power normally. If the operation and maintenance personnel rely on manual inspections to troubleshoot, it will inevitably be inefficient and lead to power generation losses.
Through continuous experimentation and exploration by the power station personnel, a strategy was developed,which involved technical improvements to the power module of the combiner box monitoring unit.The plan was to replace the original power supply on the circuit board with an external power module.This allowed for better heat dissipation of the power module, not only solving the high damage rate issue but also achieving cost-effective efficiency improvements.
Through technical improvements, maintenance efficiency has significantly increased, reducing financial investment and power loss. The cost of changing the monitoring power supply of a single combiner box to an external power module is only 70 yuan, while replacing a new monitoring unit for a single combiner box costs 1700 yuan, saving a substantial amount in maintenance costs.
Currently, the Shanshan Power Station has completed technical improvements on 338 combiner boxes. As of July 2021, this batch of combiner boxes has not experienced any failures of the monitoring unit due to the power module. Shanshan Power Station has effectively achieved fine management and cost reduction through effective methods, realizing excellent technical improvement results with minimal investment for maximum output.
Article Author / Liu Yaxian
Image Source / Shanshan Power Station
Layout Editor / Jia Shumin
