KiesZon has been an important designer of the solar revolution in the Netherlands since 2009. Within an operational lease, roof rental or purchase construction, they organize the development, financing, realization and operation of large-scale solar power projects on roofs or in field installations. KiesZon was looking for a 4G total solution for tracing and resolving faults in its solar power projects. Capestone has offered KiesZon the right mobile internet solution. This enables KiesZon to realize an uptime of more than 99.5% for all their solar power systems under management and an optimal return on investment.
Capestone is the party that advises KiesZon in the field of mobile data communication. The lines are short and in case of problems we jointly look for a suitable solution. Fast, decisive and informal.”
For the vast majority of companies, sustainability is an important factor. Yet sometimes investing in a sustainable energy supply, such as solar panels, is not the first choice. The relatively high investment then forms a barrier. Reason enough for KiesZon to completely unburden its clients when it comes to a solar power supply. Since its establishment in 2009, KiesZon is the first in the Netherlands to develop into a fully vertically integrated solar company. KiesZon distinguishes itself by having all the knowledge and skills of the entire life cycle of a solar power installation in-house. In this way, everything remains under KiesZon’s own management.
The solar power projects vary in size from 160 to 160,000 panels. One of these projects is located at a distribution center in Oss, where KiesZon has realized a solar roof with 7,508 solar panels. In order to read the solar panels and send the data to KiesZon’s Monitoring and Reporting Platform, a reliable, secure and fast data connection is essential.
A major problem with KiesZon’s connectivity was data failures. By far the most service calls were about this. That’s why for the project in Oss we went looking for a party that could guarantee the reliability of the data communication” says Frederik van Asbeck, Manager Operations & Maintenance. Other requirements for a partnership were: the delivery of quality hardware, combined with fast and high-quality service.
KiesZon found these requirements at Capestone. Capestone offered a complete mobile internet solution by supplying the combination of a Teltonika RUT955 router together with IoT connectivity on eSIM technology. The RUT955 is ideally suited for M2M applications such as solar panels due to its I/O ports, RS232 and RS485. The cooperation has been the start of many following projects between Capestone and KiesZon.
A well-functioning mobile internet solution allows KiesZon to read its data from the solar projects. This data is uploaded via a push to a server. Here the data is read and visualized by means of a Monitoring and Reporting platform. Using the visualizations, KiesZon can easily analyze the performance of the solar power system. This way KiesZon is able to detect deviations at an early stage so that they can be investigated in time. As soon as a deviation is detected, a service engineer is sent to the location. With the help of various measurements, the problem can be brought to the surface so that it can be solved. This way KiesZon realizes an uptime of more than 99.5% for all their solar power systems they manage and an optimal return is achieved.
Besides KiesZon, the Platform is also used by its customers. Via a self-developed dashboard, customers can quickly see what the productions are and whether objectives are being achieved. For example, the distribution center in Oss can read that in 2020 a yield of 1,842,848 kWh has been achieved. This is equivalent to 1,105,709 kg of CO2 avoided.
Frederik van Asbeck says about the cooperation: ”Capestone is the party that advises KiesZon in the field of mobile data communication. The lines are short and in case of problems we jointly look for a suitable solution. Fast, decisive and informal.”
Capestone bv
Haagse schouwweg 6
2332KG Leiden
The Netherlands
