Plaistow 214kW

Plaistow 214kW case study

Working on behalf of another firm our installations team were asked to install this 214kW system on the Crouchlands Farm Estate as part of an ongoing renovation project.

The first part of this project saw the team re-install a smaller 153 module system on one of the new roofs, this didn’t form part of the new 214kW installation but was more of a trial to secure the contract for the latter.

The 214kW system was split across 4 roofs;

• 1 array of 280 modules
• 1 array of 252 modules
• 2 arrays of 90 modules

As we were only providing the installation services on this job the goods were already sourced for us. Each of the roofs were a trapezoidal sheet roof so a ‘mini rail’ mounting system was used to hold the JA 310W modules in place.

As well as the solar PV installation we were also contracted to run all the DC cables back to the inverters, and run in extra cabling such as data cables. Our electrical team were also contracted to install the inverters, switch gear / protection and metering systems. This project used a total of 7 large 3 phase inverters each installed in pre-specified locations in each barn.

Following completion of the project our electrical team was also asked to return and complete the commissioning of the inverters following our client receiving the DNO approval.

This project threw up many challenges, not only was it the biggest job we had undertaken it also needed to be installed right at the start of the COVID19 U.K. wide lock-down. A challenge for all involved. Social distancing measures had to quickly be put in place as well as the provision of extra PPE for the team, hand-gel and facemasks etc. We ran with a maximum of 4 people on roof at any one time. This allowed us to ensure our distance was maintained whilst still acting safely on a building site. Another unexpected challenge was the amount of pollen from the trees, this made the roof slightly more slippery than normal. You can see from some of the pictures just how yellow the panels look after only hours of being on the roof!