Common SCADA Problems O&M Teams Inherit and How to Fix Them When an O&M team takes over a utility-scale solar project, they’re inheriting whatever SCADA system the construction team left behind – for better or worse. Unfortunately, there can be loose connections, misconfigured device IDs, missing documentation, and more. These are… Continue reading “Common SCADA Problems O&M Teams Inherit and How to Fix Them”
New Course: Compliant Solar Array Wiring Bootcamp Wire management is the most common deficiency Janet Hughes has seen across thousands of solar installations. She’s just launched her new “Complaint Solar Array Wiring Bootcamp” course to fix that. Janet Hughes has been in the solar industry since 1988,… Continue reading “New Course: Compliant Solar Array Wiring Bootcamp”
SCADA Acronyms Explained: What Beginners Need to Know For those brand new to SCADA, one of the first walls you’ll hit is all the acronyms. Networking, communications, and cybersecurity each come with their own vocabulary, and SCADA sits at the intersection of all three. Here are a handful… Continue reading “SCADA Acronyms Explained: What Beginners Need to Know”
What 30 Years in the Electrical Trade Taught Jason Brozen About Keeping Workers Safe In March 2026, HeatSpring’s Brian Hayden sat down with Jason Brozen at the NABCEP Conference in Milwaukee for a conversation on the Suncast Media stage. Jason is the Safety and Technical Training Manager at Tyndale, a master electrician with 30… Continue reading “What 30 Years in the Electrical Trade Taught Jason Brozen About Keeping Workers Safe “
New Courses: Introduction to Hand Tools and Power Tools for Solar HeatSpring is excited to announce two new courses from Jenny Conrardy: Introduction to Hand Tools for Solar and Introduction to Power Tools for Solar. Who These Courses Are For These courses are built for new solar employees, apprentices, and career… Continue reading “New Courses: Introduction to Hand Tools and Power Tools for Solar”
What Does SCADA Connect on a Utility-Scale Solar Project? On a utility-scale solar project, SCADA connects three distinct parts of the system: the PV equipment, the substation, and the utility. Each layer often speaks a different protocol, and understanding how they fit together is foundational to working with these… Continue reading “What Does SCADA Connect on a Utility-Scale Solar Project? “
The Complete Utility-Scale Solar Curriculum: Introducing the Utility-Scale Solar Executive Bundle If you’ve been following Andy Nyce’s courses on HeatSpring, you know the catalog has grown substantially. Andy has spent over a decade working across every phase of utility-scale solar execution, and over the past few years he’s turned that experience… Continue reading “The Complete Utility-Scale Solar Curriculum: Introducing the Utility-Scale Solar Executive Bundle”
The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your NABCEP OMAT Credential The NABCEP Operations & Maintenance Associate Technician (OMAT) credential is the newest entry-level credential from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), and it officially launched on April 7, 2026. While the PV Associate has long served as… Continue reading “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your NABCEP OMAT Credential”
New Course: Development in Utility-Scale Solar Many people who work in solar have never seen all the work that gets put in before construction begins. If you’re in construction, you inherit a project that someone else spent years putting together. If you’re in finance or asset… Continue reading “New Course: Development in Utility-Scale Solar”
What Is a Certificate of Insurance on a Solar Construction Site? Before a subcontractor ever sets foot on a utility-scale solar project, there’s a stack of paperwork that has to be in order: contracts, licenses, bonds, and one document that tends to get overlooked until something goes wrong – the certificate… Continue reading “What Is a Certificate of Insurance on a Solar Construction Site?”
What is SCADA? More than 43 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity is planned for 2026 in the U.S., which would represent a 60% increase over the previous year, according to the Energy Information Administration. Every one of those plants runs on a… Continue reading “What is SCADA?”
What Does It Take to Level Up in Solar + Storage Operations and Maintenance? Amanda Bybee has spent years building the systems, standards, and training that keep solar and storage assets running. As CEO of the Amicus O&M Cooperative, the creator of the Tech 1 and Tech 2 courses, she knows exactly what separates… Continue reading “What Does It Take to Level Up in Solar + Storage Operations and Maintenance?”
What is the SEIA/ANSI 301 Standard and Why Does It Matter for Solar and BESS O&M Technicians? Job titles, pay scales, and expectations for O&M technicians have historically varied widely from one solar company to the next. A Level 2 technician at one employer might be doing completely different work than a Level 2 at another. For… Continue reading “What is the SEIA/ANSI 301 Standard and Why Does It Matter for Solar and BESS O&M Technicians?”
What is Root Cause Analysis? Why is It Important for O&M Techs? When something goes wrong on a solar or battery energy storage system, the fastest fix is not always the right one. Hitting a reset, swapping a component, or clearing a fault code without understanding why it happened in the first… Continue reading “What is Root Cause Analysis? Why is It Important for O&M Techs?”
New Course: Basics of Commissioning on Utility-Scale Solar Commissioning is where a solar construction site becomes a power plant. It’s also where schedule delays get expensive fast, defects cost more to fix than they did during construction, and the utility, owner’s engineer, lender’s engineer, and equipment vendors all… Continue reading “New Course: Basics of Commissioning on Utility-Scale Solar”
Don’t Have the Exact NABCEP Documentation Required? Here’s What to Do This can be a common challenge for utility-scale solar professionals pursuing NABCEP Board Certification. If you’re working toward your NABCEP PV Installation Professional (or most NABCEP Board Certifications), you’ll need to submit your decision-making role experience before you can sit… Continue reading “Don’t Have the Exact NABCEP Documentation Required? Here’s What to Do”
New Course: SCADA Communication Systems for Utility-Scale Solar The U.S. added 34.7 GW of utility-scale solar capacity in 2025, according to SEIA and Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Market Insight Year in Review. That’s a lot of plants being commissioned, handed over, and turned over to O&M teams, many of… Continue reading “New Course: SCADA Communication Systems for Utility-Scale Solar”
New Course: Pre-Construction in Utility-Scale Solar The subcontractors you select, the contracts you put in place, and the commercial foundations you establish before construction starts will shape every aspect of project execution. A well-run pre-construction (pre-con) process is one of the highest-leverage things an EPC can… Continue reading “New Course: Pre-Construction in Utility-Scale Solar”
New Course Announcement: Transformer Specification & Applications for Inverter-Based Resources As many residential solar designers move up into larger C&I and utility-scale projects, the work starts to look pretty different from a rooftop install. Transformer specification is one of those areas where the learning curve shows up fast and where… Continue reading “New Course Announcement: Transformer Specification & Applications for Inverter-Based Resources”
What is an Energy Market Forecaster for ESS? If a battery energy storage system is going to make money in a wholesale energy market, it needs to know something the market hasn’t told it yet – where prices are headed. That’s the job of an energy market forecaster.… Continue reading “What is an Energy Market Forecaster for ESS?”