About

A shared standard for how well solar is run

The Solar Operations Maturity Institute (SOM Institute) is an industry initiative to give solar PV a common language for maturity, so that everyone involved in a plant can see where they stand, where their peers stand and what the next level looks like.

The initiative

What the SOM Institute is

The SOM Institute is an industry initiative with two parts: a standardised maturity model for the solar PV industry — a common language for how well solar assets are monitored, measured, optimised, financed and reported on — and a benchmark built on it.

The people involved in a solar asset each see it from a different side. Asset owners, O&M providers and EPCs, PPA providers and their customers, funders and boards all have a stake in how well it is run. A standard model gives them one way to describe it, and one ladder to measure it against.

Its first instrument is the Solar O&M Maturity Survey: a self-assessment that takes under ten minutes, benchmarks you against the South African cohort, and gives you a gap analysis toward the level you said you want to reach.

Who’s involved

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).

SolrBoost operates the survey and is the only party that processes individual responses. The benchmark partners receive aggregated, anonymised results only.

Read the model history

  • University of Cape Town
  • TruePoint South Africa
  • Partnerships for Growth (P4G)
  • SolrBoost

Why a standard model

One ladder, so every climb can be compared

Every area uses the same 0 to 5 spine: blind, manual, reactive tooling, systematic, automated and integrated, optimised and quantified. A level means the same kind of progress in Monitoring as it does in Finance.

  1. See where you stand

    Seven areas, each placed on the same ladder, so you can see which parts of your operation are strong and which are behind.

  2. See where your peers stand

    Comparison is area by area, against the anonymised South African cohort of installers, O&M providers, asset owners and managers.

  3. See what the next level looks like

    Each level in each area means something concrete, so the next step is described in plain terms rather than guessed at.

Who it helps

Four ways in, one model

The survey starts by asking which of these describes you.

Funders, boards and landlords read the reports rather than answer the survey.

  • Owner-user “We own solar assets and use the power ourselves”
  • Owner and PPA provider “We own solar assets and sell the power under a PPA”
  • Provider · EPCs, O&M providers and asset managers “We build, operate or manage solar for other businesses”
  • PPA customer “We buy power under a PPA, someone else owns the plant”

The survey

How the survey works

Under ten minutes. Seven areas, thirteen rated questions and one yes-or-no question.

For each area, you say

  • How important it is to you: not applicable, low, medium or high.
  • The level you want to reach: your target, from 0 to 5.
  • Where you are today, from 0 to 5, on each question in that area. If a question is unfamiliar, you can mark it as such.

The yes-or-no question

Whether the expected-generation figure is independently verified.

A few closing questions

Your approximate number of sites and installed capacity, as ranges; where you lose production (grid unavailability when Eskom or the municipal supply is down, downtime and maintenance, system underperformance, or throttling and curtailment); and an approximate monthly budget range per site for monitoring and analytics.

How your results are worked out

  • Each area’s level is the average of its questions.
  • Areas you mark as not applicable are not rated, rather than scored zero.
  • You are compared with your peers area by area.
  • Your gap is your target minus where you are today.
  • Priority is importance multiplied by gap.
  • All seven areas are weighted equally.

What you get, and when

Your maturity benchmarked against the anonymised South African cohort, a gap analysis for every area, and the industry insights, emailed to you within about two weeks of the survey closing. Your individual answers stay confidential.

See every level of the model

Join the climb.

Every response adds to the shared picture of where the industry stands. Yours takes under ten minutes.

Take the survey