Release Notes
We release new system updates frequently. These updates include new features and fixes designed to make Greenbyte work better for you. Consider it a little gift we extend to you.
Watch this space for info about the improvements that optimize Greenbyte, and perhaps make your day a little better.
Time Zones are Expanding!!
Time zones are added to some more areas from our system:
Status Log
Status Categorization
Alert Log
You can now change the time zone in which you are visualizing the pages by changing it in the top time zone dropdown.
When Site Time is selected, the statuses are ordered according to UTC so the newest is still at the top. We have also added a tooltip that shows the time zone and time in UTC for each status when you hover over the start or end time column. We hope this makes it easier to understand what the Site Time is when multiple sites are selected using the filters.
Note
We are currently fixing the following issue:
If you only select one wind farm and view that data in Site Time, it shows 'Multiple time zones' even though only one is selected.
The fix for this issue will be released next week.
We have now added time zones badges to all the forms on these pages. This means that the time zone selected on the Status Log, Status Categorization, or Alert Log page is reflected on the form on each of the tabs. Data entered into this form will be in the time zone displayed on the badge.
Time Zones For Monitor Widgets are Here!
Get in the zone with your monitoring.
As part of our ongoing time zones project (which you can read more about here), we are now pleased to provide the option to see your assets in Site Time on Monitor dashboards.
Currently, all site and device data is shown in the same Company Time regardless of where the site is positioned in the world. Having Site Time allows the customers to see data in the time zone at the site (wind or solar farm), which is particularly relevant for Monitor widgets since displaying solar assets in the local time zone makes more sense for sunrise and sunset timings.
On Monitor / Wind Farm (Site for solar), Monitor / Wind Turbine (Solar Device for solar), and Monitor / Device pages, you are now therefore able to select which time zone you would like the data on the entire dashboard to be displayed in by using the drop-down menu:
If you wish to edit a widget, you can check the time zone badge on the Edit Widget form to see what time zone has been pre-selected on the dashboard.
Note
It is not possible to select Site Time on Monitor / Portfolio since the dashboard would need to visualize several Site Times simultaneously. We believe this would be unnecessarily confusing and that Company Time is probably sufficient.
Please note that at present (15 Sept 2021) we have only recalculated the data for 2020-2021 in Site Time for all customers. This means that it may not be possible to accurately see data from before 2020 in Site Time for your sites, but you can still see this if you select Company Time. We are progressively recalculating historical data – it just takes a while because there is a lot of it!
Time Zones For Export are Finally Here!
This is the first delivery in the Time Zones project.
From now you can export your data in Site Time!
We have added time zone support in exports. Time zone in the exports table.
Now in addition to Company Time, you can select Site Time or UTC. Check it out in the Export Data dialog box:
Of course, such a big change comes with some limitations:
UTC will only be available for device resolution, 5-minute values, 10-minutes values, 15-minutes values, and 1-hour averages.
When exporting data in Site Time, we will only support Site and Device aggregation.
For more information, see Export Data.
Pssst! We've Updated Meter Mapping!
When administrating a Grid meter or Production meter, the mapping from the Meter to the Turbines (for a wind farm) or Inverters (for a solar site) can now be edited. This mapping controls, for instance, how some signals are calculated.
Great Updates to Status Categorization Filter!
When working with Status Categorization, the filter to this view has been extended with a toggle near each type of contract category. This controls both the columns that will be shown in the list and what categories are part of the filter.
Awesome Improvements in Mass Categorization of Statuses!
The mass categorization of statuses in Status Categorization and Status Log is improved.
When mass categorizing turbine statuses have no availability contract for any wind farm, you can only categorize on IEC categories. For the availability contract, the No contract text is shown.
When mass categorizing inverter statuses without a contract for any of the sites, an error message is shown.
When mass categorizing turbine statuses, where only some of them have a contract, the following error message is shown:
When mass categorizing turbine statuses, where all wind farms have a contract but not the same, you can only categorize on IEC categories. For the availability contract, the Multiple contracts text is shown.
Other Data Signals!
From now you can select other data signals in your exports. Check it out in the Export Data dialog box:
For more information, see Export Data.
Alert Widgets and Repeated Status Codes:
This week we have:
Added the Alerts widget on the Analyze page
Extended the support for repeated status codes
We have made the following changes to alerts:
Added the functionality to select occurrences for stop, warning, informational, curtailment, and communication statuses. You can select multiple categories at the same time.
Added a new option to count the statuses combined or individually. You can use this option to count specific statuses.
In this example, we are showing when the alert is triggered for the above condition. All of the statuses below are in the same evaluation period and are in the exact order we received them.
We Are Getting Time Zone Badges!
As a first step towards adding multiple time zones to our platform, we have:
Explained what is the current time zone (current time zone = Company Time).
Added a static time zone badge to the most important pages and forms. This time zone badge will display the currently visualized time zone. Presently, we only support Company Time, which is set during the installation phase. For information on what is Company Time, see What is my Company Time? on the time zones page.
Note
In a later release, this badge will be replaced with a dropdown list with an option to choose Site Time in some places. Site Time is the time zone the assets are located in.
For more information about the time zones project, see Time Zones.
It’s time for time zones!
Over the coming weeks, we will roll out the ability to visualize data in Site Time - the time zone at the site (wind or solar farm). Presently, the customer's data is visualized in Company Time - the time zone your company chose to display the data in when they connected to Greenbyte.
You can read more about the time zones project here.
Keep an eye out for developments!
Export duty
We have been preparing our exports for time zones and at the same time we have implemented some of your requests from Influence:
To improve the data gap consistency between wind and solar for exports, timestamps will always be added. When there are data gaps, they will be shown as NaN.
Are you tired of exports that run and run only to finally fail because they reach the limits? We have added warnings and limitations to keep this from happening. To make this possible, templates that previously had the Entire interval option selected will now be changed to the Last 30 days option.
The limitations are calculated based on multiple variables such as device, signals, resolution, and interval.
The warnings let you know if the export can’t be created because the amount of data exceeds the limit.
The following changes have been made to the Export Data form that opens when you go to Share / Export Data and click Export Data:
Moved the Devices selector
Moved and improved the Time interval selector
Added the option to exclude the signal file
Great expectations
We are pleased to announce the release of the Budget Deviation Waterfall widget.
The chart works for solar assets and compares the actual energy of a portfolio, site, or device, to its budgeted energy – how much energy you expected it to produce – and visualizes the causes of any deviations.
You are held accountable to your owners, investors, or employers against your default budget – or maybe several different budgets (P90, P50 etc.). Budgets typically include expectations as to what sort of losses are likely to affect the asset or what sort of resource will be available (Resource Index).
This means that a budget is not an empirical measure of what a solar array (measured at inverter) could produce, but is rather a human estimate of what it should produce in a given month, given the likely amount of sunshine and availability. This chart helps you see how accurate that estimate was.
Tip
The Budget Deviation Waterfall (BDW) is designed to be a companion widget to the Loss Analysis Waterfall (LAW), so we recommend displaying them together on the same dashboard.
This allows you to compare and contrast losses in a meaningful way. For example: “Aaargh - I have big losses on Performance! But when I look at the BDW I see that the Performance Ratio Deviation is pretty small, so actually most of these losses were already budgeted for. Hooray!”
Copy your contracts
It is now possible to copy an existing availability contracts by clicking the copy button at Administrate > Availability contracts. When you copy a contract, all settings, categories, and default status categorizations will be copied. The new contract will not be assigned to any wind farms or solar sites. For more information, see Availability contracts.
Are your underperforming strings breaking the bank?
Have you ever wondered how much the under performing and non-operational strings are costing you? If you have, we have the answer for you. We are augmenting our recently released string monitoring feature with four more signals that identify String Downtime and Performance losses at Combiner box and Inverter levels. Now, you can not only identify string issues but also be able to actively decide whether fixing these issues makes economical sense. If you are curious about the feature and want to try it out, please contact your CSM.
Protecting your wind KPIs from lost comms
We've made your most important Wind KPIs more robust, even when you have a communication loss for Energy and/or Power. When the turbine is stopped, the new fallback signals for Energy and Power will return 0 and the following KPIs will continue to be accurate through the comms loss.
Lost production to Downtime
Lost production (Contractual)
Production-based System Availability
Production-based Contractual Availability
Production Factor
All Lost Production to Curtailment signals
Housekeeping our charts
We are upgrading to the latest version of the charting library used for widget graphs. All of the functionality will stay the same, but you may notice some minor changes to the visualizations in some widgets and reports.
A change of Plan
We've been working hard to improve some of the pages in the Plan section. In addition to the changes described below, we've done some behind the scenes work that makes the forms open more quickly.
We want you to have some time to prepare, so these changes will be enabled for you next week. Feel free to reach out to support@greenbyte.com if you have any questions.
The Add task and Edit task forms the following changes have been made:
Single-column layout.
Some fields have moved.
In the status list, the status type is no longer indicated via background color, only by icon.
The status list is sortable on all fields.
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Single-column layout.
Some fields have moved.
The New Task... option in the task selector is now a button inside the drop-down.
Changes when adding or editing personnel:
When you click Add personnel, an Add personnel form will appear.
The personnel selector is now alphabetized.
A New Personnel button is available in the personnel selector so you can add new personnel to the system when logging site access.
Personnel data (vehicle registration number and phone number) are added in the Add personnel form instead of inline.
Once you have added personnel to the site access, they are sortable on all fields.
Current conditions are shown in a list instead of in two-columns.
HSE list is sortable on all columns.
The option to Save and log device access is now also available when editing an existing site access.
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Single-column layout.
Some fields have moved.
Removed the Transfer Control label from the TOC toggle.
Changes when adding or editing personnel:
When you click Add personnel, an Add personnel form will appear.
The personnel selector is now alphabetized.
A New Personnel button is available in the personnel selector so you can add new personnel to the system when logging site access.
Personnel data (vehicle registration number and phone number) are added in the Add personnel form instead of inline.
Once you have added personnel to the site access, they are sortable on all fields.
Current conditions are shown in a list instead of in two-columns.
HSE list is sortable on all columns.
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Tip
This week we're delivering a triplet of Influence requests. Influence is where you can suggest improvements to the Greenbyte system; view the suggestions made by other users; and vote for suggestions to help get them prioritized. Your input is valuable and our product team looks at Influence frequently to know what is important to you.
Go to Help > Suggest a Feature to wield your influence.
Ring my bell
Were you too busy to read the release note popup and now you're wondering what you missed? You'll now see a bell-shaped notification icon in the menu bar that you can click to see the latest news from Greenbyte, including a permanent link to the release notes. The bell will have an orange dot when there is new content.
Know your ABCs
Dashboards are now listed in alphabetical order in the dashboard selector so you can easily find the dashboard you need.
Check your references
It is now possible for reference turbines to be used during curtailment periods. This makes it possible for you to accurately visualize and report on your Lost Production to Downtime, even during curtailments.
Where did all your energy go?
We are pleased to introduce the Loss Analysis Waterfall widget.
This chart helps asset managers find the energy losses that could have been affected by O&M. It also helps you to find the sites and devices that contributed the most to energy losses during the selected period.
The chart works for both wind and solar assets and compares the actual energy of a portfolio, site, or device, to its theoretical energy – how much energy it could have produced if it were running optimally in perfect conditions.
Read more about the Loss Analysis Waterfall widget.
Dig even deeper into your analysis
Did you know it's easy to use the Greenbyte API to get your data into Excel or PowerBI for further analysis? Read this handy guide on Working with Power BI and Excel on the Developer Portal to learn how.
What time is it?
It is now possible to get timestamps in UTC time through the API. UTC support has been added for all endpoints that return timestamps. Set the useUtc flag to true to get timestamps returned in UTC time zone instead of client time zone. The flag is set to false by default.
Aggregated data for day/week/month/year is not included and will return an error code.
Find your underperforming combiner boxes
Plot the Reference Current Normalized signal in a heatmap to see a relative performance comparison of the combiner boxes in a site. Below you see a heatmap which clearly shows issues with a few combiner boxes.
Do you have alerts defined for string monitoring? You can tweak the sensitivity of those alerts using the new Combiner Box Reference Current (%) metadata field on your PV sites to set the threshold for Reference Current Normalized. The default threshold is 85th percentile.
For example, if an alert is defined to trigger when the difference between String Normalized Current and Reference String Current is > 20%, then having a higher threshold (like 95%) makes the alert more sensitive. On the other hand, if the threshold for Reference Current is lowered to, say, 60% then the alert is less sensitive.
If you're interested in using this new signal, please contact support@greenbyte.com.
Blame it on the rain! New solar signals to help you understand why your inverter is underperforming
We have added new solar signals that let you know when your inverter is underperforming compared to your budget and why. Quickly know whether you can blame it on the rain, or whether it's time to pick up the phone and call your operator.
Investment Performance Ratio (IPR) for inverters measures performance of assets from a financial perspective, showing how actual production relates to the budget. This lets you know whether the investor's expectations are being met.
Resource Index (inverter) measures the weather conditions to show the amount of actual irradiation compared to forecast irradiation. Weather conditions are monitored by the climate station (consisting of pyranometers, temperature sensors, wind mast, humidity sensors, etc.). This lets you know how much weather is to blame when your production is less than expected.
Operating Performance Ratio (OPR) measures performance of the inverter, given actual weather conditions. It can indicate that the operator could have done something better during the period.
Energy Budget - Weather Adjusted corrects the inverter's resource budget with actual irradiance data. When you compare actual production to the adjusted budget, you find the losses you can actually do something about, rather than losses caused by weather.
Trust your irradiance data
We have improved the data cleaning features for irradiance.
Any irradiance data during nighttime will be filtered out. Nighttime is determined using the device coordinates to find the sunrise and sunset time.
The system will also detect and filter out irradiance data that is flatlined.
Cleaned data will be used by default in all KPIs as well as in dashboards, reports, exports, and in the API.
To see the raw data for a pyranometer go to Data Studio and select Options > Filters > Show raw data. See Data Cleaning for more information or reach out to Greenbyte Support if you have any questions.
View heatmaps in Data Studio
The Signal Heatmap widget is now available in Data Studio.
You have influence!
The following three changes were made based on suggestions submitted to Influence. Influence is where you can suggest improvements to the Greenbyte system, view the suggestions made by other users, and vote for suggestions to help get them prioritized. Your input is important to us and our product team looks at Influence frequently to know what is important to you.
To get to Influence, log in to Greenbyte and go to Help > Suggest a Feature.
Filter your power curves in reports
The power curve filters available in Data Studio are now also available to use in the Power Curve widget in dashboards and reports so you can determine which types of periods should be shown in the widget.
From Monitor to Data Studio
The Show data studio link available on widgets on Analyze dashboards is now also available for widgets on Monitor dashboards.
View turbine IDs in the turbine table
Now when you go to Administrate > Wind Turbines, you'll see an Identity column showing the turbine IDs.
Aggregate KPIs in default Analyze dashboard widgets by organization levels above site
If you have customized the organization of your asset structure, you can now aggregate the KPIs in the widgets on default Analyze dashboards to asset levels above site. This means you can view the KPIs for your region, fund, or any other level that you have defined above site level. This is available for the following widgets:
Set permissions to limit access to API endpoints
It is now possible to set permissions for your API endpoints when generating an API key. This makes it possible for you to generate limited API keys for your third-party partners so that you can decide exactly which endpoints they have access to and what they can do with them. For more information, see API keys.
Select which lost production signal to use in the Status API endpoint
You can now determine which lost production signal to use in the active status call and the status call. To make the selection, use the lostProductionSignalId parameter. If no signal is selected it defaults to the configured lost production signal. For more information, see the API documentation.
Organize your asset structure
Do you work with as asset portfolio that is divided into funds? Are country divisions not enough for you? To enable you to work with your assets in the way that makes most sense for you, we have now made it possible for you to define how your assets are organized in the sidebar and the device selector. Until now the asset structure has been predefined, based on geography. Assets are grouped by country as soon as there are more than ten sites installed in more than two countries.
Now, in addition to portfolio, site, and device levels, you can add any number of levels between them to suit your needs. Group your assets by fund! Group them by region! Group them by area within a site! Group them by business unit! Group them in whatever way supports your workflow. Your new organization will be available in the sidebar and in the device selector throughout the system. Also, in you sidebar you'll see links to dashboards that are pre-filtered by your new groupings.
The new asset organization is based on metadata fields, so you can group by any metadata field that you have defined. If you are interested in reorganizing your asset structure, reach out to your Greenbyte CSM. Like things the way they are? Don't worry, the system will continue using the old geographic structure until you decide to change it.
Limit signal permissions for API keys
Until now, API keys gave permission to all signals for the devices selected and there has been no way to limit which signals can be accessed though an API key. It is now possible to set permissions for individual data signals for API keys.
Go to Share > API Keys to add or edit an API key.
Use the new Signals field to select the authorized data signals. To give permission to all current and future data signals, leave the field blank (nothing selected).
The following API endpoints affected by data signal permissions:
datasignals.json: filters the returned data signals according to permissions.
data.json, realtimedata.json, datapercategory.json: gives 401 Unauthorized error for unauthorized data signals.
status.json, activestatus.json: may omit lost production values based on data signal permissions.
You can follow changes related to the Greenbyte API in the What's New section of the Developer Portal.
New Available Capacity for Production Signals
Available Capacity for Production (Turbine) presents how much power a given turbine is capable of producing at the given time, assuming ideal wind conditions are present. The signal can be used to provide production availability data required by a power off-taker or a production forecasting service, and it differs from the Potential Power turbine signal in that it does not take actual wind conditions into account, but instead assumes ideal wind conditions.
Available Capacity for Production (DC) (Inverter) presents how much power an inverter is capable of producing at a given time, given the time-based system availability and the Solar Capacity DC fixed metadata value. It is often used for energy trading purposes.
Link to Developer Portal
You can now access the Greenbyte Developer Portal through the Help menu at Help > Developer Portal. The Developer Portal replaces the former API section located in the Greenbyte help documentation.
Changed default settings for Data Export
We have changed two default settings for Data Export to match the most common use cases.
The Time interval field now defaults to Select time interval with the current month as the selected interval.
The Signals field now defaults to Specific signals, with no signals selected.
Export data feature update
The Export Data feature has been improved. It is now possible to select which lost production signals to export. It is also possible to select more than one lost production signal. Note that this change will change the column order in the exported file, the lost production signals have been moved to the far right of the exported status file.
The new export data form has been updated to include the following:
A new checkbox in the signal section for including/excluding signal data,
Resolution is part of the signal selection,
There is a new section for status,
The include status file field has moved into the status section,
There is a new data signal selector in the status section that lists lost production signals.
You can check out the new export data form here:
Solar Performance Ratio (IEC)
Two new performance ratio signals have been added for inverters. The signals Performance ratio (IEC) and Performance Ratio (module temp. corrected) are now available.
You can find the documentation for the two new signals here:
Performance Ratio (IEC Module Temp. Corrected)
Forecast date presets in widgets
We've added new widget time span presets for forecasting! This means you can easily select preset time intervals such as the next 3, 7, or 14 days to visualize your forecasting data.
Estimated Potential Power Inverter
Potential power estimated for inverters is only calculated when irradiance is above cut in and no power data exists. This calculation tries to get data points for the same interval the previous day until all data gaps are covered. You can find the documentation for the calculation here: Potential Power Estimated (Inverter).
Effective Power
We have added the signal calculation for effective power for solar sites. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Effective Power.
Grid Meter Net Energy
The Grid Meter Net Energy calculation provides the net energy output from a grid meter. The net energy is defined as exported energy minus imported energy. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Grid Meter Net Energy.
Denormalized Power
The Denormalized Power calculation assists in estimating the deviation of the performance of a specific inverter. The reference normalized power needs to be denormalized so that the inverter’s capacity is accounted for. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Denormalized Power.
Potential Power Reference Inverters
This signal calculates potential power based on the average yield of reference inverters for this inverter. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Potential Power Reference Inverters.
Solar Irradiation
The Solar Irradiation calculation shows how much energy is produced per square meter in each time step. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Solar Irradiation.
Solar Irradiance Reference
The Solar Irradiance Reference is the same as the device’s irradiance, but with a fallback to a reference pyranometer. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Solar Irradiance Reference.
Solar Irradiation Reference
The Solar Irradiation Reference is how much energy is produced per square meter in each time step. You can find the documentation on the calculation here: Solar Irradiation Reference.
Data quality
Improving data quality is one of the main Greenbyte focus areas for 2020. We will be updating you throughout the year on the features we release which improve your data quality.
We are pleased to announce the release of the data cleaning feature, which allows users to set threshold values to filter out clearly invalid data. You can learn more about data cleaning here: Data cleaning.
API endpoint
We have added a new API endpoint to Greenbyte to make it possible for users to extract Lost Production data per contract contract category from the API. You can also extract data relating to downtime with additional specific requirements. You can find more information about this API endpoint here: Get data per category.
Production-Based Availability (inverter normalized)
This signal gives the production-based availability of a solar asset using the inverter normalizing calculation method. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Production-Based Availability (inverter normalized).
Normalized Power
One key aspect of solar PV sites is that not all inverters have the same DC capacity connected to them. The normalized power signal takes the AC power output of an inverter and normalizes against the DC capacity connected to the inverter. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Normalized Power.
Potential Power Reference Turbines
Potential Power Reference Turbines calculates the potential power for a turbine. It considers the power of the reference turbine(s) if their capacity is the same, or it normalizes it if the turbines have different rated capacities. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Potential Power All Reference Turbines.
Potential Power Manufacturer Power Curve
This signal provides how much power a wind turbine should theoretically be able to output based on the manufacturer-provided power curve. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Potential Power Manufacturer Power Curve.
Lost Production to Downtime Inverter
Lost Production to Downtime Inverter is the lost production when Time-based System Availability is considered Unavailable. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Lost Production to Downtime (Inverter).
Lost Production to Downtime (inverter normalized)
This signal is used as part of the Production-based Availability (inverter normalized) calculation method. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Lost Production to Downtime (inverter normalized).
Lost Production to Performance (inverter normalized)
This estimates the lost production due to inverter under-performance by comparing the denormalized power with the effective power for each inverter. You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Lost production to performance (inverter normalized).
Total Lost Production (inverter normalized)
Total Lost Production (inverter normalized) is the sum of Lost Production to Performance (inverter normalized) and Lost Production to Downtime (inverter normalized). You can find the documentation for this calculation here: Total Lost Production (Inverter Normalized).
Calculation documentation updates
As part of an ongoing initiative, we are updating the existing documentation for a number of our signal calculations. Check out this week's release of updated calculation documentation here:
Tracker angle absolute difference
Announcing, our new solar signal calculation Tracker angle absolute difference! This signal helps identify when solar trackers deviate from their target angle (don't you just hate when that happens?). Check out the documentation here for Tracker angle absolute difference.
Device selector
We have made some improvements to the continuity of our device selector. When you switch between dashboards using the dashboard dropdown, your selected devices will now remain intact instead of resetting. When you navigate to a different site or group, the device selector will be updated with the site or group’s selection. This behavior will be consistent on all levels of dashboards.
Quick links
A meter may now be considered a parent device with its associated turbines as children devices, or as its own group containing its associated turbines. The quick menu in the sidebar for the group device now offers options to be able to easily view the group’s dashboard or only the meter in a device dashboard.
Share your custom dashboards
You can now share your custom dashboards in the same way that you share information from Data Studio. Just click the link icon at the top right corner of the dashboard to get a URL that you an paste into a message or email.
Sidebar redesign
We are so excited to unveil our Sidebar redesign! We have updated our Sidebar by improving its look, usability, and performance - especially for customers with many assets.
Some changes you'll see in the new sidebar are:
Quick actions have been removed
Search performance improved
Harmonized asset structure and grouping with the rest of the system
Performance improvements for large portfolios
Updated look and feel: clearer hierarchy for customers with deep asset trees, new icons, etc.
Control Center sort
You can find more information at The Sidebar.
Default resolution in Data Studio
It is now possible to select "Default" resolution in the Data Studio. When you select Default resolution, the system will apply an appropriate resolution based on the time interval you have selected. For example: it will display monthly data if you look at a full year, while the highest resolution will be displayed if you look at a single day.
Data export resolution
We have added the option to export your data in "Device resolution." This means that the export will contain data with the highest resolution available for the device. For example: 5-minute, 10-minute or 15-minute data.
