About
An industry initiative for a common measure.
The Solar Operations Maturity Institute (SOM Institute) is an industry initiative in two parts: a standardised maturity model for the solar PV industry, and a benchmark of the South African industry built on it.
The initiative
One language for how solar is run.
The model is a common language for how well solar assets are monitored, measured, optimised, financed and reported on. With it, the different stakeholders around an asset (owners, O&M providers and EPCs, PPA providers and their customers, funders and boards) can see where they stand, where their peers stand, and what the next level looks like.
Its first instrument is the Solar O&M Maturity Survey: a self-assessment that takes under ten minutes, benchmarks each respondent against the South African cohort, and gives them a gap analysis toward the level they themselves said they want to reach.
Partners
The model, and the benchmark.
The SOM Institute maturity model was developed by SolrBoost. The SOM Institute benchmark — this survey, the South African cohort it builds and the industry insights it produces — is run in partnership with the University of Cape Town, TruePoint South Africa and Partnerships for Growth (P4G).
- University of Cape Town
- TruePoint South Africa
- Partnerships for Growth (P4G)
- SolrBoost
Why a standard
What makes it a standard.
- One spine
- All seven areas are rated on the same six levels: 0 blind, 1 manual, 2 reactive tooling, 3 systematic, 4 automated and integrated, 5 optimised and quantified. Levels are therefore comparable across areas.
- Concrete levels
- Each level means something specific in its area. In Optimisation, level 0 reads “Inverters run whatever was set on day one”; level 5, “Optimisation runs continuously and the realised savings are measured and reported.” See every level of every area.
- Peers, area by area
- Respondents are compared with the anonymised South African cohort one area at a time.
- Your own target
- The model asks where you want to be as well as where you are. The gap is the distance between the two, and its priority weighs that gap by how much the area matters to you.
Who it helps
Useful to everyone around the asset.
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Asset owners
Whether they use the power themselves or sell it under a PPA: where their operation stands in each of the seven areas, how that compares with their peers, and what the next level would involve.
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O&M providers, EPCs and asset managers
The same picture of their own practice, set out on a scale that their clients, owners and funders read in the same terms.
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PPA customers
A common reference for how the plant behind their agreement is monitored, measured and reported on, and where their own practice stands.
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Funders, boards and landlords
They read the reports rather than answer the survey. For them the model is a consistent way to ask how well an asset is run, and to understand the answer.
How the survey works
Under ten minutes, from first question to report.
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Step 1
Say which position describes you
Owner-user, owner-PPA provider, provider (EPCs, O&M providers, asset managers) or PPA customer, in the survey’s own words.
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Step 2
Work through the seven areas
For each area: how important it is to you (not applicable, low, medium or high), the level you want to reach (0–5), and then where you are today (0–5) on each of its questions. Thirteen rated questions in all, and any question can be marked as unfamiliar.
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Step 3
Answer one yes-or-no question
Whether the expected-generation figure is independently verified.
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Step 4
Describe your operation
Approximate site count and installed capacity, in ranges; where production is lost (grid unavailability while Eskom or the municipal supply is down, downtime and maintenance, system underperformance, throttling or curtailment); and an approximate monthly budget range for monitoring and analytics per site.
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Step 5
Leave your contact details
So that your report can be sent to you.
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Step 6
Receive your report
Within about two weeks of the survey closing: your maturity benchmarked area by area, a gap analysis toward the targets you set, and the industry insights.
How your levels are worked out
- An area’s level
- The average of its questions.
- Not applicable
- Not rated, rather than scored zero.
- Against peers
- Area by area, against the anonymised cohort.
- The gap
- Your target minus where you are today.
- Priority
- Importance multiplied by gap.
- Weighting
- All seven areas carry equal weight.
Your answers
Confidential, and shared only in aggregate.
Individual answers are confidential. SolrBoost operates the survey and is the only party that processes individual responses; the three benchmark partners receive aggregated, anonymised results only. Your contact details are collected so that the report can be sent to you.
The Solar O&M Maturity Survey
See where you stand, area by area.
Under ten minutes. Confidential. Your benchmark, your gap analysis and the industry insights are emailed within about two weeks of the survey closing.
Take the survey