James Oswald - Servicing 3-Phase String Inverters | Ep147

You know,sometimes solar panels get all the attention in the solar industry because they're the most visible component in a solar facility. But the inverter is the heart of the system. It's doing the heavy lifting day in and day out. And in this interview with James Oswald, the service director for CPS America, I think you're gonna see that this gentleman has a tremendous amount of heart himself. He's been with a company for eight years, the industry has changed dramatically in that time. And you can see that he is dedicated to growing a family friendly culture that takes care of its people. People make the solar industry go round. Technology is a wonderful thing. But without people, we have nothing. And we need lots and lots of more people to come into the industry. So my hope is that if you're listening to this show,you will reach out to Jen power systems.com And check out their career opportunities that I give you, James Oswald,

are you speeding the energy transition? Here at the Clean Power Hour, our hosts, Tim Montague and John Weaver bring you the best in solar batteries and clean technologies every week? Want to go deeper into decarbonisation? We do too.We're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it.Together, we can speed the energy transition.

Today on the Clean Power hour Servicing three phase string, my guest today is James Oswald. He is the service director for CPS America.Welcome to the show, James.

Thank you. Glad to be here.

I'm excited to have Chint back on the show. And we see in the background, you're sitting in your lab there in the Dallas area of Texas. Tell us a little bit about yourself,James, how did you get interested and then involved with the clean power industry.

So I've been in electronics for over 30 years now. Then got into solar purely just happened. I was working in electronics. I've been doing power supplies since the 80s. So I was working at GE they had a reduction in force. And the gentleman that started this company, one of the starters of this company founders of this company, saw that I was out of work and pulled being and brought me brought me here and I've been here ever since.

Crisis crisis is Opportunity always. How many years ago was that? James,

It was eight years I've been with CPS for eight years now started off working in the lab, it was a different,different location different lab a lot smaller, because we've grown quite a bit over the time.Back that was just me in the lab. But that time now I have 16people easily working in and out of the lab in the warehouse. So

and in those eight years, of course, the solar industry has changed dramatically. I mean, you're you're talking about 2015 or so.Right? Yeah. And, you know, now in the US we have 140 gigawatts of installed solar, we're, we're on pace to double that by perhaps 2025. And then going to,on an annual basis, we're doing about 20 gigawatts, we're gonna go to 40 by 2025 60, by 2030,amazing, amazingly dynamic industry that we're in. And it's it's both massive growth, but also massive change, right?Because the technology is constantly evolving. Give us a little flavour of what you've seen with the CPS inverter line.How has it changed in the eight years that you've been there?

So the lines are fairly similar. It's just gone up in power and stayed the same size we've gone. I started, we just finished the 20 Ks, and they were 600 volt DC n 20k output. And we've gone from their 2000 volt input up to 1500input. And we've gone from so20k We did a 20 320-836-5060.And now behind me, here's a 275.That's one of our newest, that's our newest one gone from 20k to275. And not much change in weight or size. So and that's all due to the new technology,the new ICS chips, and magnetics that's come out to allow us to go up in voltage input voltage to be able to carry more output voltage. And we've gone up to what eight Under volt AC now,and at the time it was 480. So to wait for it, but now we're up to 800, we did 600. And now we have 800 volts AC, although a lot more power and a smaller,smaller package,

and give our listeners a flavour for what the cient footprint is in North America, how many sites and what is the kind of the throughput that your service department is dealing with?

So we're looking at, I think, I believe it's like10,000 sites now we have floating around the United States. So we have RMAs that come in through this building,and go back out. So throughput,we get maybe 40 units a week. So come from these sites. And these are all different different types of units, we even still get some of our old residential units, we did do a resi, a long time ago before my time. So we have some residential units out there. So we still even service those, those are all coming very close to end the light this year, next year. So they'll hit their 10 years, but we do have to service those as they come in. So we still have those.

Yeah, I think of cient as a solid CNI. And now utility scale three phase inverter company. And the inverters are getting bigger.There's also this transition going on in the US market, away from central inverters to string so you know, what might have been a five megawatt central inverter on 100 megawatts site is now being replaced with what275 and three and 350 Kw inverters.

So 350, kW should be out by the end of this year.So we'll start those seven Yes,that's what replaces the big central starting to be replaced by those because when a central goes down, they lose everything when a string goes down, they just lose the little piece. And it's very quick and easy to change the unit out, which is what is normally the standard,it's done, they just swapped the power head on the unit real quick and move on and get the site back up. And then the unit will come here to be repaired.And fix and evaluate.

And tell us a little bit about your day to day what what exactly is going on within your operation.

So we receive units from the field will receive a call from the field saying that there's a service issue of some sort. That service issue is addressed by the technical support line people that we have, we also have monitoring people that monitor the system through our flex gateway, which allows us to see our units and see the unit by unit performance, not site performance as some people, some platforms will show you the site, or a very broad unit, we get down into the unit, find out what may be going on. If it is a unit failure if it isn't a unit failure. So there, we'll decide if the unit needs to be RMA. Or if we need to make a field visit. And then we'll go from there, if the units are made,will send out a replacement within 24 hours. And we'll bring the failed unit back and work on it here in the lab where it's much easier to work on. If we need a field visit or we want to work on it in the field, then I will dispatch one of my seven field technicians that we have at this time to the location to work on the unit.

So there's a field technician staff and then there's a staff that is working there in the lab, tell us a little bit about the lab operation.

So the lab operation is done. We have CBS labs that we just broke off recently, where we can do some engineering stuff. We're starting to evaluate the units more we're doing quality control. And looking at the failures and units as we get from China, China's r&d. And we're evaluating those and looking for ways to improve.We're also looking at new innovations that we could possibly add to the unit changes that we can do unit wise or product wise to improve the service and the and the operations of the units in the United States. So in the US that's what's done in the lab,which you see behind me is small right behind me is about 450 Kw worth of DC power. I have others power supplies up to my left here. So I can get up to 650kilowatt DC. And I do have an800 volt transformer 600 volt.And then the building is 480.And I also have a 208 circuit,just because the need for some of our older needs.

It was it was it was a little weird when I was there in the spring this past spring, to hear Brian Wagner your president say that, you know, we make a product that is guaranteed to fail. Every inverter that goes out on a solar site will eventually fail.Will it be 20 years or more?It's impossible to know. But what do you think about when you think about CPS and service? And your customers? What is it that your customers appreciate about CPS and the way you handle service.

So they like our service were the 24 hour change out is top priority to a lot of them. And the way we can evaluate the unit with the flexo N and see what's wrong, a lot of times it's not even the unit,we'll get calls and we find out it's the tracker, it's something else in their system that we can see through our portal to track it down and say, Hey, we think this whole bank of trackers facing the wrong way. I mean,you could see the inputs and stuff, you can tell that type of stuff to see what's going on.And they appreciate that they appreciate that there's a live person that answers the phone,we have a hotline. It's spanned by three gentlemen, while for continent FLEXlm part of it. And we are hiring more as we speak,we're looking at adding to that to get live support 24 hours for to our customers.

You've mentioned the FLEX OM several times, and I'm looking at the spec sheet for that product. It's a communications gateway. But tell us more about what are the capabilities that the gateway gives you on a monitoring and lnM bases.

So with the Flex gateway, we like I said we can see down to unit level, we can watch a particular unit, we can see inputs, outputs, what the production is that day, it records faults, fact it'll report to us faults when it has evolved, if we haven't set out our monitoring platform to tell us that there's faults. With it,we can also adjust settings as utility companies decide they want settings changed on the units, maybe power factor, or they want to curtail outputs,we're able to do that all remotely, you don't need a truck roll, the owners don't have to send somebody out to the site to go unit to unit to do it. We can do it all from here in our building in Texas or some other locations that we have people that monitor and work on the flex through the portal, it will also chart and graph certain things for you. We can send out setting reports saying well all units are set at and how they're set.

Very cool. When you think about the inverter line and the trends in the industry, and you know this incredible growth trajectory that we're on, what are the challenges and opportunities for change as you see them here in2023.

So we're starting a lot more in utility, and we're expanding our offerings and utility, we now have skids. And then we're offering transformers, we're looking at pairing up with different people for transformers, and skids BLS equipment, like on the 800 volt that doesn't really exist, we're starting to work on that more and get some of it out, we have a 600 volt or an 800 volt, three and one combiner BLS back here behind me that we have out so and we're looking at different items in that and so that we can assist with the units going on and help people in the field and help them with getting the equipment that they need.

The headcount of the company is is changing it's it's a very fast growing company now. What type of talent are you in particular looking for in the service department?

So I'm looking for some field service people people that have some experience with the solar industry that have been out the field for maybe a couple years that inverter experience and field experience.Also looking here in the building and Richardson in the lab for some engineering, it's more engineering people that have engineering knowledge on the inverters, no, the inverter,no solar, no, the solar inverter and the solar industry to work that most of my positions would be technical field service type physicians. Yep.

And what are the what are the educational requirements of the field service technician? I'm just curious.

Some of them have engineering degrees. Most of them are just technicians.They've been in solar industry for a long time. They've done electronics, they know electric.They know. We run them through OSHA certifications and stuff,to make sure they have that knowledge and can work safely.One or two of them have electrician licences depending on the state. We have one gentleman that told him 12master electrician solely up or down the east coast. So he's got a licence, a master's so you know, that's always comes in handy to have. So on the field service, and in the lab here, I have a couple people with master degrees, and like an electronics, so a couple degreed engineers that work out of this building.

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, the maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over six gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS America product lineup includes three phase string inverters ranging from 25 to 275kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 252 75, is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts,the 250 to 75. pairs well, with CPS America's exceptional data communication controls and energy storage solutions, go to cin power systems.com To find out more. So if you're interested in learning more about career opportunities at CPS America go to chintpowersystems.com. There's a company tab and then there's a careers page right under that.You know, James, one of the things that I think about when it comes to servicing a huge number of very complex devices is that you're inheriting you know, design and engineering that was done years ago, and now is in production and being deployed into the field. When you when you think about the technology and the state of three phase string inverter technology in the US, what are some things that are on your mind about how the industry can take it up a notch? Are there are there things that you notice about the solar industry, and the technology pathway, so to speak, that you would like to see change? how technology

is moving so fast,that I think a lot of the older stuff is getting lost, I'd like to see some re engineering of some of the older stuff to keep it alive longer possibly, to make it survive longer, then,because a lot of it's hitting in the light, and a lot of the original source stuff is all going to hit into light here real soon. So you're going to have a lot of sites that need repurpose, so we need to look into that more in a way to repurpose it and maybe do something with the existing units to keep them running longer. Even if it's like a refurbish type deal or something. But electronic components as you know, change yearly. Right? And the manufacturers of electronic components obsolete stuff real fast, because they don't want to keep it around. So it makes that type of stuff a little more difficult.

Yeah. Tell us about manufacturing, at CPS,where are the bulk of your inverters being made?

So everything that's coming to the United States is now made in Thailand.So we have a factory in Thailand that's doing all of the UL Type US units. So they all come from Thailand get shipped over r&d and mother company is out of Shanghai.

And when units first arrive in the US, do they all pass through Dallas or do they go directly to the field?

No. So the units will come in. And they land in Long Beach most of the time, say95 or 99% of the time they go to a warehouse that we have in Pomona. So the shipments are divided out at Monterey,California. There, they'll ship usually out to the customer directly. Sometimes we do ship direct to site that has to be a rather large site because then we ship all containers. I mean,depending on how big the site is. They can go to site and be delivered there. But they do all first go through Long Beach,California.

Gotcha. Gotcha. So what else is on your mind I guess about service and what should customers and prospective customers Now about working with cient. You know, you mentioned that you're servicing 10,000sites, that seems like a mind boggling large number. And, and and so I'm just yeah, I'm, I'm kind of curious how that works,because that's a big geography for a relatively small team of service technicians, are they?Are they on the road just 100%of the time? Or what is their?What is their life like?

So our skilled service technicians are out probably anywhere from 60 to80%. of the time, I had the numbers on that, it's usually not some of them, I have a couple that were around 80 or more last year, but like I said,we are hiring. So we noticed the trend and we try to fall back on it. When they're not on the road, then they're usually at their home and they answer the phone, talk to customers do write ups do reports that, but we try to keep them no more than60% On the road, because it is a lot even 60% you think well,it's that 40% really doesn't amount to much. So we so are normally they're out 60% Some little warm. But like I said, we add that we are adding to try to alleviate that sun.

And tell me about turnover and what employees like about working at cient.

So turnover, we in my department, we haven't had much. I've added people and most everybody that we brought on,and that we're here, when I started, we did have a couple people out in the field are still here, they're still with us still working in the field,senior field engineer that we have, he was a year before me,there's another senior technician that he's like three or four years before I started,he's still with us out in the field working. So I'm trying to say I really haven't had much turnover in the service department, we don't see much turnover. We have full benefits,good working condition. We're small. So we're still very family oriented. We're still you know, it's like a group like a family. We all I know everybody,everybody knows me. I know most of the families, the wives the children. So it's a it's a close knit group, on the thing throughout the company, even with the sales and everybody else, groups, so losing some of it as we get bigger, but that's what's going to happen as you get more people. Yep, when we get up to 150 and stuff, then it'll be even harder to know everybody and everything. So,but we're still small enough for that.

Let's talk a little more about technology. I mean, people are what makes the solar industry work. And I'm a huge advocate for getting more people into the industry, check out all of our content at Clean Power hour.com. And reach out to me, I love hearing from our listeners, give us a rating and a review on Apple and Spotify.And subscribe to our YouTube channel. James, you know, these electronics are very sophisticated devices. I'm curious, Are there aspects of the Internet of Things, for example, that CPS is leveraging?Are there predictive analytics that you can do on products in the field? You know, to get ahead of the curve, so to speak,if you notice something abnormal about the way an inverter is operating, how do you how do you get your your team around? I guess becoming more proactive about servicing the product when it's out there.

So here again,with the flex O M portal, we monitor certain sites customers will call in they'll notice small regulate a letter Yeah,regularities, you know, on and off, and they'll contact us and say, Hey, you peoples to see anything notice that we can go in? And we can it records data.So we can go in and look at past history. See what happened before were done today. See if we could find any trends on what may be going on. Now if there's noise that we can see on the on the harmonics for the AC that the units have report Monix group record ways to input output current, there may be spikes that we can see. You know, so we know what's going on, then we can look at the site over a long period and find out how it's been running. Is it running it 80% For some reason for a long period of time or at100% or you know, sometimes what the customer may think is 100%really isn't feasible and We'll look at the system and say, Hey,you only going to get this because this is what you're actually have due to shading or other environmental issues that are out there that make the site different than what is on computer generated piece of paper.

Yeah, I mean,there's a lot that can go wrong with a solar field, right?You've got the trackers, you've got the racking, you've got the wiring, and the wire management,all kinds of connectors. I'm curious if the inverter gets blamed sometimes for problems that are in other components of the system.

Yeah, so the inverter will tell you like arc fault or ground faults. And usually people look at and say,Oh, the inverters failing, but it's not the inverter, the inverters smart inverter, and it's just telling you, hey, you have a problem in your field.And I'm telling you, and I'm not going to turn on because of that problem. So a lot of times they'll blame the inverter for that. Or they'll blame the inverter for it. They'll say load production out of the unit,when we can trace it back and say, No, it's not the inverter,you have something in the field,maybe a pan or bad connector,like you said, you know,something that's not operating at 100%, the inverter just is reacting to what it's given.

I like to think of the inverter as the heart of the solar array, right? It's doing the heavy lifting, and converting that DC power from the solar panels to AC power,which goes to the grid, that all of our lights and HVAC, etc, run on. And, and that heavy lifting is a heavy lift. It's a big, big job. So I just want to, you know, really give a shout out to chin for being such a stellar brand in North America. I have seen you guys growing for the last seven years, and it's just really impressive what you're doing. And tackling larger and larger sites. I mean, there's there's two trends that are that are really impacting the Digi world. And that is the, you know, with the great expansion of community solar across the United States, these are one to10 megawatt sites, which is really blossoming, large CNI. Is there, it's, it's on a steady growth clip as well. And then there's utility. And you're you're now getting involved in these 100 megawatt projects with large three phase string inverters. What else should our listeners know about service at CIT?

So service, we never give up on a problem.We've never walked away from a problem. We service our units.track it down, we spend hours tracking down failures, trying to figure out why and correct it. Even if it's not our issue.A lot of times we'll spend a lot of time looking at Site issues to see we know how we can correct the site to make it run better. We have a whole team of application guys, engineers that do that. They'll look at it work on the site. So our service is always there. We're always here24/7 weekends, some weekends,you'll have to spend longer trying to get out of this than others and say, well, holidays,but we do usually answer weekends, holidays, etc. If there's a major issue that needs address,

yeah, when a solar array is down, it's not generating income. And and so it is a top priority for these asset owners and managers to keep their assets running smoothly. You know, on that note, in general, there is a signal in the solar industry in North America that assets are underperforming. And I'm curious if you have any thoughts about that. Do you see ways that developers and asset owners can avoid underperformance?

I think some of what they say is underperformance is the design.They think it's optimised and there's just so much that goes into solar that you know, you just miss it, don't see it. But monitoring helps, I mean it seeing any changes in your system and in your site. You can, you know, put through monitoring to adjust it to get peak performance. Also maintenance on the Solar Site,solar array and the units. You have to keep them up, keep them running. And I've been some sites that are just scary when you walk on And because no one's touched him for seven years,right? It just been sitting there. And I mean, the inverters run. So nothing, nobody says anything, but then you go and you have weeds, bushes, trees,animals, you know, all the all the stuff that you don't like to see, especially running around electronics and high power. So,but you do see it. So think more maintenance more more attention to some, some of these sites,the bigger sites, usually well maintained, it's usually the smaller sites that slip away.

Yeah, a year goes by fast. And if you're not visiting your site on an annual basis, at least you're gonna get woody growth happening. small trees, they grow tall, fast, and then you got shading, and you got all kinds of critters living in your solar array. He comes back fast. Well, it's been a pleasure, James, I want to let you get back to servicing your department. And if there's any other call to action that you'd like to let our listeners know about, I'm all ears. I just if you have

an issue,anything, bother bothering you,or you have questions you can call our hotline because all we're here like I said, 24/7We'll take care of it as best we can. And as fast as we can.

Thank you James Oswald, Service Director for CPS America. I'm Tim Montague. Let's grow solar and storage. Take care James

You too Tim.