The information gap in PPA contracts
Power Purchase Agreements transfer generation risk to the solar provider, but they do not automatically give the energy buyer visibility into whether the risk is being managed. The corporate buyer in this case had signed PPAs across eight commercial sites, each with an annual generation target. Their only performance data came from monthly reports provided by the PPA providers themselves — reports that were typically delivered weeks after the billing period and that contained no interval-level detail. If a system was underperforming, the buyer would not know until it showed up in a bill.
Independent metering as the foundation
Conexie specified and arranged the installation of independent generation meters at each of the eight sites — revenue-grade devices separate from the PPA provider's own monitoring infrastructure. Independence was important: the buyer needed data they controlled, from hardware they owned, that was not subject to interpretation by the counterparty. Each meter fed five-minute interval data directly to the Conexie platform, giving the buyer an unmediated view of what their solar assets were actually generating.
Performance tracking against contract targets
With generation data flowing, Conexie configured the platform to track each site's generation against its contractual target — calculating cumulative performance year-to-date and projecting full-year performance based on recent output. The fleet dashboard showed all eight sites on a single screen, with each one colour-coded by performance status. Sites tracking to target were green. Sites where cumulative generation had fallen below the contracted trajectory were flagged amber or red.
Catching an underperforming system in week one
Within the first week of the platform being live, one site was flagged as significantly underperforming relative to its contractual trajectory. The interval data showed that generation had been consistently lower than expected for the preceding three weeks — a pattern invisible in the monthly summary reports the buyer had been relying on. The buyer raised the issue with the PPA provider, who investigated and identified an inverter fault that had been degrading output. The fault was repaired within ten days. The buyer used the Conexie data to substantiate their performance claim and negotiate a billing adjustment.
Ongoing value and negotiating leverage
The platform continues to run as an always-on verification layer across all eight sites. At each billing cycle, the buyer's finance team can cross-reference PPA provider invoices against independently metered generation figures before approving payment. In one subsequent billing period, this process identified a billing discrepancy where the invoiced generation figure exceeded the independently metered figure — an issue that would have been paid without question under the previous process. Independent monitoring changed the power balance in the contractual relationship.