Further to monitoring and consolidated reporting, ENcome also supervises local service partners, conducts regular technical on site checks and acts as single point of contact for the commercial asset managers. “Mandating a professional Technical Asset Manager with a 24/7 monitoring centre leads to significant reduction of system downtimes in case of incidents and a better identification of creeping errors through comparison of individual plants”, explains Robin Hirschl, CEO of ENcome Energy Performance, and continues “this quickly pays off for any investor, even with smaller portfolios.”
When it comes to large photovoltaic portfolios, investment companies are often faced with a situation where they have to deal with numerous different counterparties for the operation of their plants. As often the EPC contractor is also engaged for Operations & Maintenance during the first two years for warranty reasons, a portfolio typically is taken care of by different local operators. Even though all contracts might be similar, their interpretation by the contractors is certainly different and also the reporting formats will differ.
Oxford Capital wanted to ensure that it had consistent monitoring and technical asset management service in place to maximise its returns for investors and selected ENcome as their Technical Asset Manager in early 2014. ENcome rapidly installed its monitoring system “ENcome Energy Monitor”, which is not only specially designed for investors but also allows to be retrofitted to existing monitoring hardware solutions, and in parallel to legacy systems without significant effort, but also allows for a consistent determination of all key performance indices across the portfolio. Beside the advantages of the monitoring system Barney Rhys Jones, Infrastructure Investment Director at Oxford Capital Partners, summarizes the main benefit of ENcome as their Technical Asset Manager as follows: “With ENcome monitoring technical performance and coordinating O&M responses we are able to focus on the commercial administration of our portfolio and the identification of new opportunities for our investors.”
Looking forward, ENcome expects the UK to be again one of its major growth markets in 2015, not only due to the new builds but also as a consequence of the professionalism of UK investors, who are continuously looking for the best care of their assets.
The ENcome group is a pan-European leading and independent provider for the operation of photovoltaic power plants with focus on technical Operation and Maintenance (O&M), technical Asset Management (TAM) and the compilation of technical expertise. At present ENcome operates power plants with a nominal capacity of several hundred megawatts in different countries. Well skilled engineers ensure the best yield for every renewable energy park in any grid environment. Furthermore ENcome offers other services along the asset lifecycle of photovoltaic installations partnering amongst others with renown law firms, tax advisers and security centers.
Oxford Capital is an investment manager with two distinct strategies. It provides Growth Capital investment to smaller companies from a range of industries, helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses in their chosen markets. It also invests in Infrastructure, providing finance to companies that own and operate revenue-generating infrastructure assets. Private clients can invest in both strategies through a range of tax-efficient investment opportunities, including Enterprise Investment Scheme investments. Institutional investors can invest in both through Limited Partnership funds and through tailored investment programs.