GADS reporting required for far more solar facilities in 2025

It was not until 1982 that NERC (North American Reliability Corporation) started GADS (Generating Availability Data System), a database about the performance of electric generating equipment that supports equipment availability analysis. Through GADS, NERC maintains operating information on conventional generating units, wind plants and solar plants.

Today there is information on over 5,000 generators in the GADS database, and that number is soon to go up with the changes in regulations. Starting in January of this year, solar facilities over 100 MW of total install capacity were required to report to GADS and that threshold will be lowered to 20 MW in January of 2025.

GADS reporting is separate from the upcoming NERC applicable changes. The NERC rules ensure that elements of the Bulk Electric System operate in a way that is safe and reliable for all that use it. GADS is an arm of the NERC organization that began collecting design, performance, and event data into a singular location to analyze and identify if there is a holistic problem across different utilities, different generators, transmissions, etc. To see trends, you need as much data as possible, hence the inclusion of smaller facilities.

Loggan Purpura Senior Manager of Compliance with Radian Generation said “A few months back I determined that a specific solar panel had an issue with reduced capacity, but it was only because we had the exact same issue on two sites. GADS is collecting thousands of site data, so if they detect a material defect across multiple sites, they can quicky alert owners to the issue. This is extremely helpful to all parties and is helpful in building grid reliability.”

What kind of information is GADS looking for?

GADS will require quarterly reporting, with reports due 45 days after the end of a quarter. If you do not have a plan for these reports, it is time to put one together. The first challenge is data collection. How will you collect the data for the report? What stakeholders are included in the process? Who will collect the data?

GADS will require you to collect three types of data: design, performance, and event data. Design data is basic information about the site, such as plant information, inverter group, and energy storage, if applicable. Other information includes location, elevation, the nearest city, the ownership structure of the site, equipment identification manufacturers, and model numbers. If you have PV trackers, reporting includes the angle, the stove speed, the minimum irradiance you expect to see performance from. All this detail from the design side, gives a baseline or context for performance data, that will be beneficial to all owners and operators.

GADS also collects a wide range of data from the performance of the site such as gross power generation, maximum capacity, active solar inverter hours, forced outages, and more. When there is a reduction in plant output below a certain level or an outage, GADS will ask generators to report on those specific events. They will want a significant amount of data on events, whether they are outages or derates to better understand and improve the industry.

While regular reports are something your facility can anticipate, an event report, can catch you off-guard if you do not have a process in place. Outages or decrease in plant output of more than 20 MW, will require event reporting, and include information on equipment failures, or grid event circumstances or whether it was planned maintenance or a forced outage.

Be sure to validate your data

It is important to plan for data validation. Is someone going through the data to check for accuracy before it is reported? Be sure to have various checks in place to make sure you are reporting quality data. There will be eyes on what you report and regulatory scrutiny to ensure you are reporting the correct data, so validating your data must be an integral part of the process. There is data management software, including Radian Digital that is designed specifically for renewables and can help identify anomalies, in addition to streamline data acquisition from multiple sources, visually enhance analytics, and facilitate timely accurate reporting.

Data validation provides cleanness, accuracy, and completeness to a dataset by eliminating errors and ensuring the information is not corrupted. Without it, a service like GADS might rely on insufficient data to make conclusions about the grid. For example, data outside certain ranges should produce red flags, and some data can be checked against historical records for validation.

Consider voluntary reporting to work out the kinks

While GADS reporting for 20MW facilities will only be required in January 2025, voluntary reporting for Q3 and Q4 will allow organizations to identify and address any issues before they become serious compliance concerns. The initial setup takes more time, and by doing a voluntary submission organizations will be able to work out the kinks and streamline the process internally or determine if they need outside help.

One challenge for many facilities is that the reporting can be incredibly dynamic, meaning there is data that businesses are not accustomed to pulling. For example, there may be aspects of your operation that are not easily available, and you will have to find a way to isolate that data and put it into the correct format for the GADS system. For example, inverter maintenance hours vs. planned inverter maintenance hours.

For organizations that choose to outsource GADS and NERC reporting, be sure to get a customized strategy that includes internal controls, reporting, documentation of all data for validation, and overall risk reduction. This will help with efficient data collection and reporting, regulation interpretation, error avoidance, proactive problem-solving, and resource optimization.

Purpura said “Most industries report on similar types of information, but it is usually a handful of volunteer companies reporting, or the top ten, or a dozen diverse companies sharing their observations, which is not a comprehensive approach. What NERC is striving for through GADS is the single best way for the entire industry to understand the real impacts of renewable energy. And for owners this should result in valuable data to help improve performance and inventory management, predictive maintenance, and of course the transition to clean energy.”

NERCs mission is to have a reliable grid, and GADS is recognized as a valuable source of information about reliability, availability, and maintainability – a key component to achieving this mission. By quickly identifying industry wide trends NERC can help owners and operators optimize performance and develop better facilities.

Building a culture of compliance and starting voluntary reporting today is a smart move, so that when 2025 is upon us, those facilities will already be accustomed to the requirements, and GADS is just another quarterly report.

Kellie Macpherson is executive vice president compliance & risk management with Radian Generation. She oversees NERC compliance and managed security services. For over 15 years, she has been a noteworthy leader in the renewable asset space and has implemented 200+ compliance programs and completed 40+ NERC audits in all six NERC regions.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.

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