GES – Global Energy Services, a Spanish company and a leading service provider in the renewable energy sector, and the technology centre TECNALIA are working together on the ITACA research project, an initiative aimed at evolving traditional operation and maintenance models for utility-scale solar photovoltaic plants towards a prescriptive approach based on advanced data analytics.
The main objective of the ITACA project is to assess and characterise the condition of solar photovoltaic assets, enabling the anticipation of failures, the estimation of production losses and the prescription of optimal maintenance strategies that help maximise energy production and optimise operating costs.
In the final phase of the project, the developed solutions will be tested over a full year at a photovoltaic plant managed by GES, allowing their performance to be validated under real operating conditions and their impact to be assessed over a complete annual cycle, taking into account the seasonal variability of the solar resource.
The project has been submitted to the HAZITEK grant programme of the Basque Government, which supports strategic, high‑technological‑value R&D&I projects, thereby reinforcing the commitment of both GES and TECNALIA to innovation applied to the renewable energy sector.
Digital transformation applied to operation and maintenance
Through ITACA, both companies aim to move beyond traditional reactive or preventive approaches in solar O&M, progressing towards a data-driven photovoltaic maintenance model, supported by a digital SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. This tool will enable the analysis of information from plant monitoring systems, the automation of diagnostics, the generation of advanced reports and the prescription of maintenance actions based on the actual condition of the assets.
GES contributes to the project its extensive track record in the construction of utility-scale solar projects, as well as the experience of its Services Business Unit, which currently provides O&M services for more than 1.3 GW of photovoltaic assets in Spain. This operational expertise is key to steering technological development towards solutions that are directly applicable and aligned with business needs.
ITACA also represents a strong commitment to process digitalisation and the use of cutting-edge technologies, such as advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence and optimisation models, with the aim of automating processes, streamlining decision-making and advancing towards more sophisticated information models for renewable asset management. Through this project, GES and TECNALIA strengthen their strategic collaboration and their commitment to technological innovation in the field of renewable energy.