Strings, inverters, IV curves, grid connection
Solar farm commissioning software built for tens of thousands of strings and hundreds of inverters, not a handful of assets.
A utility-scale solar farm turns commissioning into a volume problem: strings, combiner boxes, inverters and transformers repeated hundreds or thousands of times, each needing the same tests recorded the same way. Deskely templates the record set once per equipment type and instantiates it across the whole array, so a hundred-megawatt site is commissioned from structured data rather than a folder of PDFs per inverter.
- Scale
- Thousands of strings
- Test
- IV curve per string
- Gate
- Grid code compliance
- Output
- PAC and energisation
Choose your project type
The problem
String testing at scale turns into a spreadsheet nobody trusts by string four thousand.
IV curve tracing, polarity checks and insulation resistance tests are repeated across every string, combiner box and inverter, and manual data entry from a handheld tracer into a spreadsheet is where transcription errors and missed strings hide.
Underperforming strings are easy to miss in a flat spreadsheet and expensive to find later, once the array is energised and the fault is buried under production data.
Deskely holds every string, combiner and inverter as a tagged asset with a templated test record, so an underperforming string is visible against its expected IV curve the day it is tested, not after commercial operation.
Setting up the register
Strings, combiners, inverters and trackers are generated from the layout, not typed one by one.
Single line diagrams and string layout drawings are parsed to generate the full asset register — every string, combiner box, inverter, transformer and tracker — with its position and circuit reference intact.
One record set is templated per equipment type: string test, combiner box test, inverter commissioning, transformer commissioning, and instantiated automatically across every instance in the array.
That is what makes a hundred-megawatt site commission on the same structure as a ten-megawatt site, just with more rows.
String and inverter testing
IV curve tracing and inverter commissioning are captured on tablet, offline, in the field.
Technicians work row by row with tablets that stay usable without signal deep in an array, capturing IV curve traces, open-circuit voltage, polarity and insulation resistance against each string tag.
Inverter commissioning records — communication checks, protection settings, ground fault detection, anti-islanding — are captured per inverter and referenced against the strings feeding it.
Punch raised during string or inverter testing is categorised for whether it blocks that inverter's commissioning or the wider block's energisation.
Grid connection and compliance
Grid code compliance testing is the gate between a working plant and a connected one.
Voltage ride-through, frequency response, reactive power capability and ramp rate tests are recorded against the point of interconnection subsystem, producing the evidence a network operator requires before energisation.
Deskely gates the energisation certificate on string testing, inverter commissioning and grid compliance testing being complete for the relevant block, so a block cannot be energised while its strings are still untested.
Because blocks are modelled independently, one section of the array can be energised and generating while another is still under construction.
PAC and handover
Provisional acceptance is issued from string-level evidence, not a sample.
Provisional acceptance depends on the full string and inverter test set being complete and signed, plus a performance ratio demonstrated during a defined run period — both derived from the same structured data.
The as-built dossier — every string's IV curve, every inverter's commissioning record, grid compliance results, punch history — is exported to the asset owner and the O&M contractor together.
That dossier becomes the baseline O&M uses to detect degradation years later, because the original commissioning IV curve for every string is still on file.
Module traceability and DC safety compliance
A warranty claim years from now starts with a module serial number, and DC arc fault and rapid shutdown compliance has to be proven before the array is ever energised.
Every module has a serial number, and on a hundred-megawatt site tying that number to its string position, its IV curve result and the installation crew that mounted it is what makes a degradation or warranty claim resolvable years later rather than a site-wide guess.
DC arc fault detection and rapid shutdown compliance — module-level or string-level shutdown devices responding correctly within the code-mandated time and voltage limits — is tested per combiner or per string before energisation, and it is exactly the kind of test that gets sampled rather than completed in full when a site is racing to interconnect.
Deskely ties module serial numbers to string position at the point of installation and holds rapid shutdown and arc fault test results against every string tag, so the as-built module map and the DC safety compliance record are both complete rather than reconstructed from installation photos after the fact.
What the IPP's completion certificate reads
The plant-level records an owner needs before a utility-scale array is declared ready for commercial operation, not the installer's site sign-off.
At utility scale the evidence an independent power producer needs is a plant-wide performance case, not a set of individual string checks: inverter block acceptance, collector network integrity and grid compliance all have to close together before the offtake agreement's commercial operation date can be claimed.
Inverter block acceptance test record
Each inverter station meets OEM output and protection settings before being connected to the collector network
Commissioning, block by block, ahead of grid energisation
Medium-voltage collector network insulation and continuity test
Underground and overhead collection circuits carry rated current without insulation faults
Pre-energisation, before the substation is closed in
Grid code compliance and reactive power test
The plant's response at the point of interconnection matches the network operator's connection agreement
Pre-synchronisation, witnessed by the network operator
Plant performance ratio verification against the energy yield model
Actual output tracks the bankable yield assumption used in the financing case
During the performance test period, post-energisation
SCADA and revenue metering commissioning record
Plant-level monitoring and settlement metering report data the offtake agreement can be billed against
Before commercial operation is declared
Availability guarantee test report
The plant meets its contracted availability threshold across the test window
At the guarantee test, ahead of the commercial operation date
How it runs
From layout drawing to an energised, compliant array.
Utility-scale solar rewards generating the register from drawings rather than typing it, because the volume of repeated assets is the whole challenge.
- 01
Parse the layout
Single line diagrams and string layouts turned into a full register of strings, combiners, inverters and transformers.
- 02
Template per equipment type
String, combiner, inverter and transformer record sets defined once and instantiated across every instance.
- 03
Capture IV curve tracing offline
String tests recorded on tablet in the field, working without signal deep in the array.
- 04
Commission inverters and blocks
Protection, communication and anti-islanding settings recorded per inverter, referenced to their strings.
- 05
Run grid compliance tests
Voltage ride-through, frequency response and reactive power tests recorded against the interconnection.
- 06
Energise block by block
Energisation and PAC certificates issued per block from signed string, inverter and grid compliance records.
FAQ
Questions about Utility-scale solar scopes.
Keep reading
Power and grid commissioning
The full sector view: subsystems, ITRs, punch categories, energisation and reliability run evidence.
Read moreAI drawing parser
Single line diagrams, P&IDs and equipment lists turned into a reviewed asset register.
Read moreITR records
A, B and C records completed in the field and signed against the equipment tag they belong to.
Read moreOther power and grid project types: Gas turbine and combined cycle plants, Hydropower units and powerhouses, Biomass and waste-to-energy plants, Battery energy storage systems, Transmission and distribution substations, Overhead lines and underground cables, District heating and cooling networks, Nuclear balance-of-plant and support systems, Plant upgrades and planned outages.
