Alectrona
AftercareWhen the firm that built your array folds or goes quiet, the panels keep generating but nobody is accountable for the system. This page is about what to do first, and how to get an orphaned array back to a supported, documented asset.
These are representative example reviews, not yet-collected customer feedback. They are written to illustrate the kind of feedback Alectrona aims to earn and are shown as design placeholders while we gather and verify reviews from our first commercial clients. Alectrona is the commercial solar trading brand of RVTC LTD.
What set Alectrona apart was the documented design pack. We had quotes from three installers, but only Alectrona handed us a full set of drawings, a single-line diagram and a design referencing BS 7671 and the G99 connection process. The whole thing read like an engineering submission rather than a sales brochure. Our M&E consultant reviewed it and signed it off without a single query. That gave the board the confidence to release the capital.
Other firms priced our roof off a satellite image and a desktop guess. Alectrona flew an in-house drone survey, fully insured and flown by a qualified commercial drone pilot, and built a 3D model of the actual roof. It picked up plant, vents and a parapet line that a flat aerial photo had completely missed, which changed the panel layout. I would rather find that out at design stage than on the day the scaffold goes up. The accuracy of that survey is the reason I trusted everything that followed.
As a finance director I was wary of being oversold a system bigger than we could use. Alectrona modelled the array against our actual half-hourly consumption data rather than an annual total, so it is sized to what we genuinely draw on site during the day. They were honest that exporting surplus is worth far less than self-consumption, and built the design around that. The capital case stacked up because the engineering was honest, not because the numbers were inflated.
We were undecided between buying outright, leasing and a PPA. Alectrona laid out all three side by side with the pros and cons of each against our balance sheet, instead of pushing the one that pays them best. They were clear about where a PPA makes sense and where capex wins, and pointed us at our own accountant for the tax treatment. The survey and design took a little longer than I expected, but the thoroughness was worth the wait. Genuinely consultative.
The install crew were tidy and well run, and worked to a clear CDM 2015 plan with a proper site induction and RAMS. What impressed me most was the handover. We received a full commissioning pack with the IEC 62446-1 test results, certification, O&M documentation and an as-built record for our maintenance team. As the people who have to live with this asset for the next twenty years, having that paperwork in order matters enormously. Nothing was left loose.
I expected the usual hard sell and got the opposite. After surveying our site Alectrona told us one roof section was not worth covering because of shading, and that a smaller, well-sited array was the better investment than filling every square metre. There was no commission-driven upselling and no pressure. For a six-figure capital project, that straight talk is exactly what you want from the people advising you. We will be using them again on our second site.
An orphaned commercial solar system is one whose original installer is no longer there to support it. The company has gone into administration, been sold on, or simply stopped returning your calls. The roof carries on producing power, so on a quiet day nothing looks wrong, but the monitoring login no longer works, there is no maintenance arrangement, there is nobody to answer a warranty claim, and the paperwork that proves how the system was built is often thin or missing.
It is a common position for a finance or facilities director to inherit, and a solvable one. This page is the decision page: what an orphaned system actually exposes you to, what to do in the first few weeks, and which of two routes back to control fits where you stand. The diagnostic and repair work itself runs through Solar Tech Support, our independent, brand-agnostic arm built to support systems other installers walked away from.
Half-hourly load modelled in PV*SOL before anything is specified.
The instinct is either to panic or to ignore it, and neither helps. An orphaned array is rarely an emergency, but it is a clock, so the useful response is a short, ordered set of steps that put you back in a position to decide. None of this commits you to anything.
The danger of an orphaned system is that it is undramatic. It does not announce itself; it drifts. An underperforming roof looks identical to a healthy one from the ground, so a failed string or a dropped monitoring link can sit for months, and the first sign is usually a bill that has crept back up. By then you have already paid for the generation you did not get.
The risk that matters beyond lost revenue is the fault nobody is alerted to. Field-made DC connectors are a recognised weak point in rooftop PV, and a corroded or poorly made joint is a known ignition source, so an un-actioned fault is something your insurer cares about as much as your accountant does. Manufacturer warranties on the panels and inverters may still be live, but with the installer gone the registration and the route to make a claim often go too, so a covered failure quietly becomes a bill you pay yourself. And when the handover pack is missing, nobody can prove what was fitted or how it was tested, which is a finding a buyer or funder will hold against the building the day you come to refinance or sell.
If you want to decide before committing. An independent technical audit checks the design against the as-built reality and reviews the safety and compliance the missing paperwork was meant to prove.
If you want the problem to belong to someone. A takeover adopts the array: it is diagnosed, what is wrong is put right, and the asset is carried forward under a written maintenance contract.
Getting an orphaned system back under control is a common, well-worn path, and it comes down to a single decision: do you want to know where you stand first, or are you ready to hand the whole problem to one team. You stay in charge of that choice.
In practice many owners start with the audit and move to a takeover once they have seen the report, but you do not have to. If you already know you want the system adopted and supported, you can go straight to a takeover. Either way the next fault then surfaces early on a maintenance footing, rather than at the next quarter's bill.
An orphaned system was, by definition, built by someone else on hardware they chose, so rescuing it only works with a team set up to support equipment it did not install rather than one that services its own house brand alone. That is the ground Solar Tech Support, our independent, brand-agnostic diagnostics and repair arm, was built for, which is why an unfamiliar or undocumented array is normal work for it rather than an exception.
Because that arm is independent, it has no reason to condemn working kit to sell you a new system; it reports what it finds, and many orphaned systems need a specific fault put right rather than a wholesale rebuild. Where remedial work follows, our AM2-trained Qualifying Supervisor reviews it before sign-off and the engineer who did the work never signs themselves off. The detail of how a takeover runs sits on the system takeover page; the point here is simply that an orphaned array has somewhere accountable to go.
An orphaned system is a commercial solar or storage installation whose original installer is no longer there to support it. The company has gone into administration, been sold on, or simply stopped answering. The array keeps generating, but the monitoring login, the maintenance arrangement, the warranty support and the paperwork that proves how it was built have all gone with the installer. The system is not necessarily broken; it has lost its support.
Gather whatever paperwork you can find, stop trusting the old generation figures because the monitoring has usually gone with the installer, and arrange for someone to get eyes on the system before a developing fault becomes expensive. None of that commits you to anything. Once you know roughly what you are dealing with, the decision is whether you want an honest first look through an independent audit, or a full takeover that adopts and supports the asset.
Yes. A missing portal login and a missing handover pack are normal on an orphaned system, and re-establishing that record is part of the work rather than a blocker. An independent audit inspects the array, the inverters, the protection and the documentation as they stand, and tells you what is installed, how it tests against the relevant standards and what is still in warranty, so you end up with a documented system instead of an undocumented one.
This page is the decision; a takeover is one of the two routes out of it. An orphaned system is the position you have inherited, and this explains what to do first and which route fits. A system takeover is the service that adopts the array, diagnoses it, fixes what is wrong and carries it forward under a written maintenance contract. If you want an honest first look before deciding, an independent audit is usually the right starting point.
Yes, that is the whole point. The work runs through Solar Tech Support, our independent, brand-agnostic diagnostics and repair arm, which is built to support systems other installers walked away from, across whatever hardware is on your roof. Because it is independent, it has no reason to condemn working equipment to sell you a replacement; it reports what it finds, and many orphaned systems need a specific fault put right rather than a wholesale rebuild.
There is no fixed price, because the work is survey-led: what an orphaned array needs depends on what the missing paperwork was hiding, and that is only known once someone has seen it. The honest first look is an independent audit, scoped to the size and access of your roof; a full takeover is then priced against what the diagnosis finds and what the written maintenance contract is to cover. You get a clear scope and figure before any remedial work begins, and an independent assessment will tell you where a specific fault repair beats a wholesale rebuild rather than steering you towards the larger spend. The economics of running the asset rather than rescuing it, and how capital allowances on qualifying remedial plant might apply, sit with your accountant and on our commercial finance pages; for how the diagnostic effort is scoped see what a commercial system costs.
Getting eyes on the array is the urgent part, and a first inspection can usually be arranged quickly because it needs no manufacturer login and no original installer; the audit inspects the system, the inverters and the protection against BS 7671 and IEC 62446-1 as they stand and re-establishes the record that went missing. A full takeover then runs on a longer, deliberate clock: survey, diagnosis, any remedial work, and an independent sign-off by our AM2-trained Qualifying Supervisor before the asset is carried forward under maintenance. Where a repair touches the grid connection, the pace can also depend on a G99 notification to Northern Powergrid, and any work on the building falls under CDM 2015. The realistic driver is access and what the diagnosis uncovers rather than a calendar promise, and you have a scoped timeline before work starts.
We fly your roof, model your half-hourly load, and come back with a designed system and a price you can take to the board. Engineer-led from the first call to the final handover, and the years after it.