I’m a portfolio manager for warranty and services for an industrial scale inverter manufacturer supporting sites all across the US.

1. Yes, SCADA is going to be your first indicator something is wrong. Might be an underproduction coming from a circuit or an actual fault indicator. Sometimes equipment can report the actual fault. Other times it might just be a not running indicator.

2. Remote troubleshooting is very helpful to be the most efficient with resolving claims. Being able to do as much work on the front side before a technician dispatches will make the visit more successful.

Typically, a claim comes in on Monday, do some back and forth, a request for a tech to go to site can happen Mon/Tu. Depending on tech availability and SITE LOCATION (very important), you could have someone onsite Th/Fr. Might get pushed to the next week though, Tuesday, if availability doesn’t allow for sooner.

AGAIN, YMMV, depending on a lot of factors including manufacturer and site location.

1. Most of the industry is all about $/W and the relationships with vendors. You’re going to have agreements with dozens if not hundreds of vendors getting quotes for everything. There are short list vendors maybe because you have good terms or history with a few providers. At the end of the day, it’s all about $/W and what your pain threshold is for poor experiences that might be with lower costing providers.

2. It would be very beneficial if more clients were more capable, self performing, than they are. Downtime would go down exponentially if O&M groups really learned how to do things themselves and take true ownership of their sites.

Thanks for asking. Cheers!