MES has two guiding principles when it comes to getting projects done:
Every MES PV project starts with a plan, a day-by-day, week-by-week detailed plan. This plan takes into account our clients' operational schedule, material lead-times, engineering, permitting, construction crew scheduling, and utility interconnection requirements.
Though we have a 100% track record of always being able to secure the necessary permits, this item typically has the longest lead-time, so it's a critical path item that gets early attention. Discussion, disclosure, negotiation, and a little creativity are usually all it takes to get the job done.
At this point, with a schedule in hand and permits on the way, it's time to sit down with our customers and their operations and facilities staff and review the schedule. Much like the initial proposal presentation, we also approach this meeting as an opportunity for feedback. It's only a workable schedule if it works for our clients, so we're looking for feedback on how we can minimize disruption of our customers operations. We plan out timing, how the construction crews stay out of the way, and how the photovoltaic system can be activated without interrupting grid power.
Our role is managing information, providing updates to our customers on progress, upcoming work, potential conflicts, and at a minimum we communicate this weekly in an email, frequently including digital photos to gauge progress. And when the occasional issue comes up, as they sometimes do, we swarm all over the problem, coming up with solutions and options to review with our clients. Problems are impossible to completely eliminate, it's how they get handled that matter in the end.
This is the final step of the installation process, and MES always paves the way with the local utility. By this point, MES has filed all interconnection applications and documentation, paperwork has been reviewed, all questions have been answered, and MES schedules the final inspection. As the utility review process is thorough, it typically takes ten to twelve weeks but we keep it on track to get it done as soon as possible.
Now that PV system is fully operational, MES begins a life-long commitment to report monthly performance versus forecast. This not only ensures accountability to regularly monitor performance, but also typically results in notification of need for cleaning.