Availability events: PV systems

Availability events record why a PV system's availability changed. Use them to excuse agreed downtime, explain a low month to an owner, or correct an exclusion made by mistake. This page is for asset managers who report availability to owners, investors or lenders. For how availability itself is calculated, see Availability: PV systems.

Two availability figures

Figure	What it is	Affected by events?
Raw Availability	What the plant actually delivered, from the data only. Shown as Availability in the Analysis tab and PV Systems table.	No.
Contractual Availability	Availability after excluded events are removed. Shown as Adjusted Availability in the Analysis tab, PV Systems table and reports.	Yes. Downtime covered by an excluded event doesn't count against the plant.

Figure

What it is

Affected by events?

Raw Availability

What the plant actually delivered, from the data only. Shown as

Availability

in the Analysis tab and PV Systems table.

No.

Contractual Availability

Availability after excluded events are removed. Shown as

Adjusted Availability

in the Analysis tab, PV Systems table and reports.

Yes. Downtime covered by an

excluded

event doesn't count against the plant.

Analysis KPI bar showing Availability and Adjusted Availability

Because an excluded event only removes downtime, Contractual Availability is always equal to or higher than Raw Availability. An event that is not excluded is recorded for context and changes neither figure.

The Availability Events tab

Open a PV system and go to Availability Events. The tab appears on systems with Advanced Calculations switched on (Edit → Advanced).

Availability Events tab with Number of events, Contractual Availability and Raw Availability, the period selector and New event

Item	What it shows
Number of events / Contractual Availability / Raw Availability	Totals for the selected period.
Period	Daily , Monthly , Yearly or Custom .
Start Date & Time / End Date & Time	The interval the event covers. An event still open shows as Ongoing .
Reason	Free text. Events created from an alert carry the alert's description. Use Search to find events by reason.
Scope	What the event covers: the System , or a single inverter, string, meter, PPC, sensor, tracker or indicator.
Origin	Manual (added by a user) or Automated (created from an alert).
Created by	Who added the event.
Excluded	Whether the event's downtime is removed from Contractual Availability.
Actions	Delete event .

Three ways to create an event

1. By hand

Click New event, set the Start date & time and End date & time, add an optional reason, and tick Exclude from availability if the period shouldn't count against the plant.

New availability event dialog with start and end date and time, reason and Exclude from availability

2. From an alert

In the system's Insights tab or in Insights & Alerts, open the alert's row menu and choose Create availability event. The event covers the alert's open-to-close period. Tick Create as excluded from availability to excuse it straight away.

Alert row menu in Insights with Create availability event

Create availability event dialog with Create as excluded from availability

3. Automatically, per alert code

In Edit → Alerts Management, each alert code has two options:

Option	What it does
Automatically create availability event	An availability event is created whenever an alert of this code opens.
Auto-exclude from availability	Auto-created events are marked excluded, so their downtime is removed from Contractual Availability and the affected period is recalculated. Available only when automatic creation is on.

Alerts Management for an alert code with Automatically create availability event and Auto-exclude from availability

Alerts that opened before you turned automatic creation on don't get events on their own. The settings show how many historical alerts of the code have no availability event. Click Create events to backfill them, optionally as excluded, or create them one at a time from each alert's row menu.

Communication gaps

By default, intervals where a device isn't reporting count as downtime and lower availability. To stop that for a system, switch on Disregard communication issues in Edit → Advanced. It applies to both Raw and Contractual Availability.

Advanced settings with Disregard communication issues and Advanced Calculations

How to

Excuse planned maintenance for a contract report

Open the system's Availability Events tab and click New event.
Set the start and end of the maintenance window and enter the reason.
Tick Exclude from availability and click Create.
Report Contractual Availability where the contract excludes agreed downtime, and Raw Availability where it doesn't.

Excuse every grid curtailment without doing it by hand

In the system's Alerts Management, select the alert code, for example PPC Setpoint.
Tick Automatically create availability event and Auto-exclude from availability, then save.
Use Create events to cover the alerts that were already there.

Explain a low month to an owner

Set the tab's period to the month and compare Raw with Contractual Availability.
A large gap means most of the downtime was excused. The event list shows which periods and why.
A small gap with low availability means the downtime wasn't excused. Check the alerts for that month.

Undo an exclusion made by mistake

Find the event on the Availability Events tab.
Delete it from the Actions menu. Availability for its period is recalculated.
If the downtime should still be recorded, create the event again without Exclude from availability.

Notes

Recalculation isn't instant. After you create or delete an excluded event, availability is recalculated in the background and can take up to a day to show.
Events change availability only. They carry no kWh or monetary loss value.
No Availability Events tab? The system needs Advanced Calculations switched on.
BESS availability events work separately. See Availability: BESS.