| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Energy and Solar |
| Level | Mid level |
| Reports to | Solar Plant Manager |
| Direct reports | Solar O and M Technician, Solar Technician |
| Experience | 3 to 7 years in solar operations and maintenance |
Solar O&M Engineer job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Solar O&M Engineer
Department: Energy and Solar
Reports to: Solar Plant Manager
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Solar O&M Engineer keeps a solar plant's equipment healthy and generating through planned and corrective maintenance. They lead technicians, plan maintenance, diagnose faults, and drive availability and performance on the ground. The role reports to the Solar Plant Manager. A good solar O and M engineer prevents downtime through disciplined maintenance, restores faults fast to protect generation, keeps electrical work safe, and steadily improves the plant's performance ratio and availability.
Key responsibilities
- Plan and supervise preventive maintenance of modules, inverters and balance of plant.
- Diagnose and rectify faults in inverters, strings, cabling and protection.
- Lead the O and M technician team and assign daily maintenance work.
- Monitor generation and performance daily and investigate any underperformance found.
- Manage module cleaning, vegetation and site upkeep to reduce losses.
- Ensure safe electrical work with permits, isolation and lockout practice.
- Manage spares, tools and consumables for the maintenance team.
- Handle inverter and module warranty claims with the equipment vendors.
- Keep maintenance, fault and generation records and analyse trends.
- Support audits, inspections and performance reviews of the plant.
Requirements
- Engineering degree or diploma in electrical
- Solar O and M experience
- Electrical safety training
- 3 to 7 years in solar operations and maintenance
KRAs and KPIs for a Solar O&M Engineer
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Availability | Plant availability kept above the target each month |
| Performance ratio | Performance ratio maintained at or above the plant target |
| Fault response | Faults restored within the target mean time to repair |
| Preventive maintenance | Preventive maintenance completed on schedule with no overdue tasks |
| Safety | Zero electrical safety incident on maintenance work in the year |
| Records | Maintenance and fault records complete and analysed regularly |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Multimeter and clamp meter, IV curve tracer, Thermal camera, Insulation tester, CMMS maintenance software.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Senior O and M Engineer, Solar Plant Manager, O and M Head
Interview questions for a Solar O&M Engineer
- How do you investigate a string that is generating below its neighbours?
- How do you plan preventive maintenance to protect generation?
- How do you keep electrical maintenance work safe?
- How do you decide the module cleaning frequency for a site?
- How do you handle an inverter fault under warranty?
- Tell me about a fault you diagnosed that recovered lost generation.
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What does a solar O and M engineer do?
A solar O and M engineer keeps a solar plant's equipment healthy and generating through planned and corrective maintenance. They lead technicians, plan maintenance, diagnose faults in inverters, strings and cabling, and drive availability and performance on the ground. They prevent downtime, restore faults fast, and keep electrical work safe.
What is O and M in solar energy?
O and M stands for operations and maintenance. In solar energy it covers everything needed to keep a plant running well after commissioning: monitoring generation, cleaning modules, servicing inverters, fixing faults, managing spares and keeping the site safe. Good O and M protects the plant's availability, performance ratio and long term generation.
What qualifications do you need to be a solar O and M engineer?
Most solar O and M engineers hold an engineering degree or diploma in electrical, with solar operations and maintenance experience and electrical safety training. Employers look for skill in diagnosing inverter and string faults, planning preventive maintenance, analysing performance, and leading a technician team safely, often at a remote plant.