Consultancy

Kiwa brings you Trust, Quality and Progress. We do so by applying our leading-edge expertise and knowledge in a wide variety of subjects, industries and markets. When it comes to quality, safety, health, sustainability, uptime and profitability, it is an advantage to have a partner to share knowledge with and to grow with. A partner you can consult to help you in day-to-day work and in tackling the challenges facing your organisation. Kiwa can be that partner.

Note that we strictly separate our consultancy services from our testing, inspection and certification activities. There is no connection whatsoever; all our services are fully independent.

Services (22 results)

Preliminary design of PV Plant

Kiwa PI Berlin will analyze various configurations for the design of the PV plant, considering aspects such as equipment options, tracking and fixed, orientation, tilt angles, row distances, DC/AC ratios, etc. A preliminary design will be created for the chosen design configuration.

Pre-shipment Inspection (PSI)

Pre-shipment inspection of finished PV modules serves to check the modules for any obvious physical defects. Inspection is carried out on a sample basis and used to release modules for shipment.

Construction milestones approval

The milestones approval support consists on checking the payment milestones that are specified in the contract. This can be done both visiting the site and ensuring the progress of the construction achieves what stated in the milestone and reviewing remotely the contract documentation.

EPC Contracting Assistance

Kiwa PI Berlin will review the Customer’s key contracts to ensure it properly specifies the scope of work, design, construction, equipment, and acceptance testing. Focus is on contractually managing and mitigating potential safety, performance, and reliability risks for the Customer.

Warranty Claim Support

Prepare an expert opinion based on the results of the RCA to help the customer in the claim process and to assess the risk going forward.

Energy Yield Assessment

Kiwa PI Berlin will conduct an energy yield assessment based on the PV plant design provided by the Customer. The assessment will provide the annual expected yield for the PV plant along with an uncertainty analysis.

Technical due diligence - development phase

Technical due diligence of a PV plant or pipeline of projects in the development phase covering review of contracts, permits, stakeholders, site suitability technical design and yield assessment. The TDD is typically formed as part of an acquisition process for the buyer or the seller.

Root Cause Analysis - Modules

The RCA approach is three-fold. First step of failure assessment to review existing project documentation to determine the next steps needed for inspection/testing. Second step is to conduct the inspection and/or testing required. Third step is to prepare an expert opinion based on the results of the RCA to help the customer in the claim process and to assess the risk going forward.

Supervision of Provisional Acceptance Testing

Kiwa PI Berlin will support customer before the issuance of Provisional Acceptance Certificate by evaluating the proper execution of the plant in accordance with the conditions precedent outlined in the construction contract. The service can be provided both on remote and on site, and includes monitoring of performance testing as well as specific testing to be performed by Kiwa PI Berlin.

Site Suitability Assessment

Kiwa PI Berlin will assess the Customer’s project site in order to evaluate its suitability to be used for the construction and operation of a PV plant. The assessment will include both desktop and on-site components.

Production Oversight

Kiwa PI Berlin will provide in-factory supervision of production while equipment is being manufactured. Kiwa PI Berlin will deploy quality assurance engineers in the factory during production to ensure that all required material, process, and production controls are applied - and applied correctly.

BDA Infrared Thermography

Heat loss occurs in all buildings. An infrared camera can be used to visualise this heat loss, which is invisible to the eye.

Supervision of Intermediate Acceptance Testing

Kiwa PI Berlin will support customer before the issuance of Intermediate Acceptance Certificate by evaluating the proper operation of the plant in accordance with the conditions precedent outlined in the construction contract. The service can be provided both on remote and on site, and includes monitoring of performance testing as well as specific testing to be performed by Kiwa PI Berlin.

Supervision of Final Acceptance Testing

Kiwa PI Berlin will support customer before the issuance of Final Acceptance Certificate by evaluating the proper operation of the plant in accordance with the conditions precedent outlined in the construction contract. The service can be provided both on remote and on site, and includes monitoring of performance testing as well as specific testing to be performed by Kiwa PI Berlin.

Construction oversight

Kiwa PI Berlin will conduct a quality control inspection before and during the construction phase of a PV plant. The construction oversight incorporates specific quality control inspections, field measurements as well as a review of the contractual and country specific fulfilment of norms and standards in alignment with the approved construction plan.

Racking Design review

Kiwa PI Berlin will review the design of the tracker / Structure ensuring the fulfillment of technical and safety specifications and the location specific norms ot the project location. The design review could be (i) technical specification review (dynamic-static) (ii) wind tunnel tests (iii) mechanical tests

Evaluation of EPC Tender

Kiwa PI Berlin will conduct a technical evaluation to check the compliance of different EPC offers according to general technical requirements to be met and best practices to be carried out in the PV industry. The assessment will provide a clear picture of the development potential of the different EPCs for the construction of the PV system.

PV Plant Tender management | Kiwa PI Berlin

Kiwa PI Berlin will support the Customer in the EPC tender process by preparing the instructions to tender, reviewing the submitted tenders and providing recommendations for the tender award.

Performance ratio validation

Kiwa PI Berlin will review the O&M procedures on operational phase, in order to ensure that the PV plant is compliant with the requested performance ratio. It will also provide guidelines for the PV Plant to be capable of providing the expected energy output in the long term.

PV Equipment Tender management

Kiwa PI Berlin will create and document an RFP or RFQ solicitation for a list of target manufacturers based on the procurement requirements defined by Customer. We will support customer with collation, evaluation, and ranking of manufacturer responses and then work with Customer to assess and rank responses and/or short list the final candidates.

Technical due diligence - operational phase

Technical due diligence of an operational PV plant or portfolio of PV plants covering review of contracts, O&M performance, technical design, module quality, performance assessment and electro-mechanical installation. The TDD is typically formed as part of an acquisition process for the buyer or the seller.

PV Plant design review

Kiwa PI Berlin will conduct a technical evaluation of the engineering documentation generated by the EPC for the construction of the PV Plant. This evaluation will seek to correct and improve the engineering designs presented for the construction of the PV Plant, also seeking a greater degree of comfort for the end customer with regards to the quality of the facility.