Comparable KPIs across monitoring portals
One plant, one month, three reports. The guarantee is 98 %. Two reports pass, one fails. Nobody did anything wrong.
What the owner sees: one plant, three numbers.
Guaranteed in the operations contract: 98 %
Source A
Availability
99.5 %
- 24 hours a day
- inverters counted, not weighted
- data gaps count as available
- grid outages excluded
Source B
Availability
97.5 %
- daylight hours only
- weighted by capacity
- data gaps count as down
- nothing excluded
Source C
Availability
99.2 %
- daylight hours only
- contract exclusions applied
- maintenance within quota excluded
- data gaps left out
All three are called availability. None of them is wrong. Against the 98 % guaranteed in the operations contract, two pass and one fails, and a fail can mean damages. Only the contract’s own definition decides which one counts. Recomputed under this contract, it passes at 99.2 %. Over all daylight hours, the plant was available only 97.7 % of the time: the contract leaves out the grid outage and planned maintenance.
Synthetic example. The numbers are made up, the mechanics are not.
Why they differ: five choices nobody wrote down.
| Choice | Source A | Source B | Source C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours counted | 24 h | daylight | daylight |
| Weighting | per inverter | by capacity | by capacity |
| Data gaps | available | down | left out |
| Exclusions | grid outage | none | contract list |
| Unavailable means | fault code | no power in daylight | fault code |
Each choice is defensible. Together they move the number by two percentage points. Two points is the whole argument.
Synthetic example. The numbers are made up, the mechanics are not.
What the contractor sees: three contracts, one portal number.
Signed
- Client 1: time-based, daylight only, grid outages and force majeure excluded, 97 % guaranteed
- Client 2: energy-based, damages per lost kWh, 98 % guaranteed
- Client 3: “availability as shown in the portal”
Reported
Availability
99.5 %
One number for everyone: 24 hours a day, gaps count as available, grid outages excluded. The portal was set up once, the contracts were signed later.
The portal decides what the contract measures. Client 1 is judged on night hours. Client 2 gets a time number for an energy contract. Nobody signed that.
Synthetic example. The numbers are made up, the mechanics are not.
If the owner owns the data: define once, compute per question.
- Portal A
- Portal B
- Inverters
- Meters
- Weather
The owner's raw data
unchanged, every source in one format, every number with its origin
One definition per question
seven KPIs, each with its method written next to the number
Owner
comparable across every asset and portal
Contractor
the KPI the contract names, on the same data
The owner compares every asset, whatever portal it runs on. The contractor monitors the obligation they actually signed. Same data, no argument.
Synthetic example. The numbers are made up, the mechanics are not.
The method travels with the number: two numbers, both right.
Technical availability
Could the equipment run?
97.7 %
Contractual availability
Did the contractor deliver what was signed?
99.2 %
Same plant, same month, same raw data. Each number says what it is. The argument is over before it starts.
Synthetic example. The numbers are made up, the mechanics are not.
Name it. Define it. Write the method next to the number.
And calculate it from your own data.
Read the seven KPI definitionsQuestions
Why are availability numbers from different portals not comparable?
They answer with different rules: which hours count, how inverters are weighted, what a data gap is, what is excluded, and what “unavailable” means. Together that moves the number by two percentage points in this example.
How do I compare plants on different portals?
Own the raw data and fix one definition per question. Then every plant gets one base row, whichever portal it runs on.
Do we have to leave our portals?
No. Let the portals monitor. They are good at it. The comparison runs alongside them.
Send one plant, one month.
You get performance ratio and availability as a base row with the rules written down, the difference against each reported number with what explains it and what stays open, a method card next to every number and a 30-minute walkthrough. Nothing changes in your monitoring.
Send one plant, one month