Computer-Implemented System And Method For Inferring Operational Specifications Of A Fleet Of Photovoltaic Power Generation Systems

A computer-implemented method for inferring operational specifications of a fleet of photovoltaic power generation systems, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining historical power production data measured over an earlier time period for and also locations of a plurality of photovoltaic power generation plants comprised in a photovoltaic power generation fleet;
• obtaining historical measured irradiance data over the earlier time period for the locations;
• defining a plurality of hypothetical photovoltaic plant configurations that each comprise a power rating and operational features hypothesized for the plants;
• obtaining a configuration for each of the plants, comprising:
• simulating power output production data for each of the hypothetical photovoltaic plant configurations based on a normalized photovoltaic power generation plant using the historical measured irradiance data for the earlier time period;
• deriving a simulated photovoltaic system rating as a function of the historical power production data for that plant and the simulated power output production data;
• scaling the simulated power output production data by the simulated photovoltaic system rating over each point in the earlier time period;
• and
• inferring the configuration of that plant from the hypothetical photovoltaic plant configuration that exhibits a minimal error between the scaled simulated power output production data and the historical power production data for that plant;
• aggregating the inferred configurations of the plants into a configuration of the photovoltaic power generation fleet,
• wherein the steps are performed on a suitably-programmed computer.