Hoboken, N.J.-based Locus Energy was selected for its outstanding reputation with the cooperative’s members, the reliability and ease of use of its products, the ability of its products to analyze and troubleshoot issues quickly and remotely. Locus Energy's competitiveness in terms of price and its range of product options, as well as the quality of its technical support and its product warranties, were also key factors in the selection process.
“Locus Energy ranked the highest across most of the evaluation criteria we used to review monitoring providers,” said Stephen Irvin, Amicus’ president. “Locus doesn’t just present its data in a very useful way, but is using that data to create more advanced monitoring and data analytics features that will be very useful to our members in helping them to better provide best-in-class O&M services to their customers.”
Adrian DeLuca, Locus Energy's vice president of sales and marketing, summed up the selection as a testament to quality of Locus Energy's products and services. “We are excited to have been named the preferred supplier for the independent installers who are the backbone of the solar industry,” DeLuca said. “About a third of Amicus’ membership was already using our products, and the input from these members was instrumental in its choice."
Boulder, Colo.-based Amicus Solar Cooperative, founded in 2011, is the nation’s first and only solar purchasing cooperative and is focused on sharing best practices and pooling its members’ buying power. Under the cooperative arrangement, Amicus’ members are able to secure pricing for solar PV components that is competitive with pricing secured by much larger companies. Amicus has about 30 members primarily serving the residential, commercial and industrial solar PV markets. Each member is an equal owner of Amicus, with independent offices located across 22 states.
Locus Energy will supply products to Amicus members in two categories. The first is Locus Energy's Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) solar monitoring hardware and its accompanying SolarOS™ cloud-based software. According to DeLuca, Locus Energy's LGate series of monitoring hardware is popular with solar installers because it is designed specifically for solar PV systems, and because of the ease with which it can be installed and configured.
“Solar monitoring solutions are one of the smaller costs of a solar PV system, but they can be of the most difficult components to design, install and commission,” DeLuca explained. “Locus Energy's monitoring solutions vastly simplify the process of gathering, organizing and visualizing solar PV performance data, allowing EPCs and integrators to drive down the overall cost and complexity of system installations.”
Furthermore, with recent updates to Locus Energy's charting tool and alerting system, system operators will be even more prepared to diagnose performance issues and improve system efficiencies, DeLuca said. The updates enable more accurate system analysis by improving workflow and providing faster access to granular data. With one unified platform, operators are able to quickly manage alerts across a large number of systems.
“Where Locus Energy is going with analytics was a huge plus,” Irvin said. “The access to Locus Energy’s advanced analytics gives our independently owned and operated members a competitive edge. With the help of Locus’ products and services, our members will be able to remain competitive by driving down installation, operations and management costs.”
Locus Energy is the nation’s largest independent provider of solar monitoring solutions, with its hardware and software being used by more than 30,000 residential, commercial and utility systems throughout North America.