In this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague interviews Alex Nussey, co-founder and CEO of Wattch, a cutting-edge solar monitoring and asset management platform trusted by top installers, developers, and utilities. Nussey shares the origin story of Wattch, which began as a college project building IV curve testers for a solar car racing team.
Nussey explains how Wattch differentiates itself as a data-first company by creating precise digital twins of solar assets to model their expected performance. By comparing real-time data against these digital models, Wattch can identify underperformance issues with an impressive 1.5% accuracy, resulting in customers experiencing an average 8% performance improvement within the first three months of using the platform.
The discussion delves into Wattch's comprehensive suite of services, which includes:
1. Monitoring: Enabling remote localization, diagnosis, and resolution of performance issues across a fleet in seconds with device-level insights.
2. Operations & Maintenance: Minimizing truck rolls and guesswork while improving baseline performance by up to 21%.
3. Asset Management: Tracking, optimizing, and reporting on portfolios quickly and easily with embedded financial metrics.
4. Customer Engagement: Expanding customer portfolios, engaging new prospects, and elevating brand using performance data.
Nussey also highlights Wattch's Energy IoT solutions for real-time, bi-directional, secure connections to every energy asset and their turnkey DAS/SCADA Edge Solutions for quick project configuration and commissioning.
The conversation covers the technical aspects of Wattch's hardware and software approach, addressing the challenges of monitoring diverse equipment across solar, storage, and EV charging assets. Nussey shares his vision for unifying monitoring and control planes into an integrated platform, simplifying the often fragmented and complex landscape of solar data monitoring, analytics, and control systems.
Nussey emphasizes the critical importance of cybersecurity for distributed energy resources and provides insights into Wattch's impressive growth, having expanded to over 1,000 sites across 22 U.S. states in just four years since its founding. With easy installation, powerful remote control capabilities, and continuous software updates, Nussey presents a strong case for solar asset owners to consider adopting Wattch's innovative monitoring and asset management solution.
Key Takeaways:
1. Wattch's comprehensive suite of services, including monitoring, O&M, asset management, and customer engagement, which leverage their innovative "digital twin" approach to solar monitoring.
2. The significant performance gains (avg. 8% in the first 3 months) and potential for up to 21% improvement in baseline performance that Wattch's customers achieve after adopting their monitoring intelligence solution.
3. Insights into the complexities of monitoring diverse equipment across solar, energy storage, EV charging, and other distributed energy assets, and Wattch's Energy IoT and Edge Solutions for addressing these challenges.
4. The future vision for unified monitoring and control platforms that can seamlessly integrate data across multiple energy assets and technologies.
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The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. CPS America has offices in California, New Jersey, and Texas. Learn more at https://www.chintpowersystems.com/
00:00 - Introduction
01:31 - Alex Nussey's Background & Wattch's Origins
07:15 - What is Wattch? A Data-First Solar Monitoring Platform
9:57 - How Wattch's Digital Twin Modeling Works
12:36 - Benefits of Wattch: Performance Gains, Underperformance Detection
16:43 - Technical Details: Wattch's Hardware & Software
21:31 - Streamlining Monitoring and Control Systems for Industrial Applications
26:15 - How does Wattch's Future Look Like
32:15 - The Importance of Cybersecurity for Distributed Energy Resources
34:04 - How is Solar Monitoring Changing
35:55 - How is Wattch leveraging AI technology
37:37 - Conclusion & Where to Find Wattch
