Wind and solar already produce when the resource is there. Curtailment, inverter trips and forecast error show up after the market has moved. The site still has to deliver what the grid will take.
01
Output for this resource hour, not last week's habit
Read turbine, inverter and meteorological tags the site already logs, so conservative derates are not the only answer when wind, irradiance or temperature changes.
02
Curtailment and trips caught while the site can still respond
Hold SCADA, congestion and work-order signals together — not only after available energy is dumped or a string goes dark for a shift.
03
The asset stop while the outage window can still be planned
Read gearbox, inverter, transformer and BESS signals already in the historian, so wear is flagged while a crane or crew day can still be scheduled.
On the site and in the control room
Renewable fleets lose money in three places that rarely share one screen: energy curtailed when the grid cannot take it, capacity factor lost to downtime or soiling, and a forecast miss that leaves the next dispatch hour under- or over-committed. Most of that is already in SCADA, historians and CMMS — after the fact.
The resourceU.S. utility-scale wind and solar capacity factors leave a wide gap between nameplate and delivered energy. When turbines sit offline, inverters trip, or arrays soil without a cleaning trigger, the lost MWh never show up as a single alarm — only as a weaker month.
CurtailmentGrid operators increasingly curtail wind and solar when demand is low or transmission is congested. That is free or near-zero marginal-cost energy the site could have produced — and a signal that forecasting, storage timing and interconnection limits need to sit on one view.
The recordTurbine resets, inverter replacements and BESS clearances often sit in shared drives while the string is already offline. When the approved sequence is hard to find, contractors invent the next step under pressure.
Accepting the curtailment is the easy correction. It is also how the day is spent.
INSUS works from SCADA and met tags, curtailment events, work orders and equipment logs a site already keeps. If the gap is an unread inverter alarm, a soiling or wake loss, or an outage sheet that never joined the event, that is what we will say. Recommendations stay advisory. Existing plant controllers, EMS and grid instructions stay in charge.
Industry figures
Four external figures, each with its source. Nothing on this page is an estimate we made up. Where we cannot cite a number, we describe the situation in words instead.
Wind CF
34.3%
U.S. average capacity factor for utility-scale wind generators in 2024 (EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 6.07.B). Utility-scale solar photovoltaic averaged 23.2% the same year — fleet averages that still leave room between resource potential and delivered energy.
CAISO curtailment
3.4MMWh
of utility-scale wind and solar output curtailed by CAISO in 2024 — a 29% increase from 2023, with solar accounting for 93% of the curtailed energy, per EIA Today in Energy analysis.
Source: U.S. EIA, Solar and wind power curtailments are increasing in California
Market range
1.5–4%
share of curtailed wind and solar PV generation reported by the IEA for most large renewable energy markets in its June 2023 Renewable Energy Market Update — with higher rates where grid investment and market design lag VRE growth.
Source: IEA, Will more wind and solar PV capacity lead to more generation curtailment? (June 2023)
Solar O&M
~$22–24/kW-yr
NREL 2024 Annual Technology Baseline fixed O&M benchmark range for utility-scale PV (about $24/kWAC-yr in the 2022 base year and about $22/kWAC-yr reflecting 2023 benchmarks) — before site-specific soiling, inverter and BOS costs are counted.
Common problems
None of these show up as a single alarm. They show up in the clean that returned less than it cost, the curtailment report, and the crane that was called after the turbine had already stopped.
Soiling takes yield slowly, and irradiance hides it. Clean on a fixed day and water and labor are spent while the array is still clean — or dust stays until the month is already short.
See: Soiling Loss & Cleaning EconomicsWhen the interconnection will not take the next hour, charging the battery recovers energy only inside throughput, temperature, and state of charge. Past those limits, accepting the curtailment can be the cheaper choice.
See: Curtailment Capture & Battery ThroughputMain-bearing and gearbox wear often stays inside normal temperature until the stop. By then the crane, the spare, and the lost energy are no longer a plan.
See: Gearbox & Main-Bearing LifeUse cases
Each is a specific starting point — this solar park, this wind plant, this hybrid site — and a next conversation if it is worth your time.
Separate soiling from irradiance, temperature and clipping in inverter yield, and time a clean on recovered energy against water, labor and downtime. Advisory only.
See the full use case
When the interconnection will not take the next hour, advise whether charging the co-located battery recovers that energy inside warranty throughput limits. Advisory only.
See the full use case
Read vibration, temperature and operating point the turbine already logs so gearbox and main-bearing wear is visible while a crane window can still be booked. Advisory only.
See the full use caseFAQ
A practical look at what INSUS needs, where it fits and what your team can expect.
The work that fits is the data a wind, solar or storage site already produces: SCADA and met tags, curtailment events, work orders and equipment condition signals. Predictive Maintenance can start from signals you already log. Closed-loop turbine pitch control and automatic market bidding are not promises we will make on day one.
Energy & Utilities is the parent overview across power, grid, renewables, water and waste. Power focuses on thermal and conventional generating units — heat rate, fuel burn and steam-cycle availability. Renewables focuses on wind, solar and storage — curtailment, capacity factor, inverter and turbine trips, forecasting and site O&M — where the resource and the interconnection dominate the cost of a miss.
Usually not for SCADA, historians and maintenance. Most sites already have turbine or inverter tags, met stations and some work-order history. If a critical sensor has been drifting or an alarm code is unused, that comes before any model.
No. The person who knows this site, this resource and this interconnection stays responsible. The aim is to stop the next hour repeating the same derate or trip precursor, and to flag a developing equipment issue before it stops production.
No. It advises the control-room or O&M team. Existing plant controllers, OEM systems and grid instructions stay in charge of the loop. Protection systems are not touched.
No. Capacity factor and curtailment depend on resource, grid constraints, equipment condition and operating practice. We will not invent a CF or curtailment target for your fleet.
They are published market and fleet metrics — not measurements of your plants. Your SCADA, curtailment logs and work orders are the numbers that matter.
Yes. One wind plant, one solar park, or one BESS is usually the practical start. Measure that, then decide whether to widen.
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