The SCADA systems market for solar plants includes a wide range of providers; from general industrial platforms to photovoltaic-specific solutions and inverter vendor portals. This article provides a scientific overview of key players and selection criteria.
Market Player Categories
Solar SCADA players can be grouped into four main categories:
- General SCADA platforms: zenon, Unity, Emerson Ovation — vendor-independent solutions with multi-protocol support
- Solar-specific solutions: SolarSCADA, Meteocontrol — focus on photovoltaics and IEC 61724 compliance
- Inverter vendor portals: SMA Sunny Portal, SolarEdge Monitoring, Fronius Solar.web — monitoring with their products
- Cloud and IoT platforms: VCOM, Amperecloud — centralized monitoring without local installation
zenon (COPA-DATA / ABB Ability)
zenon is a well-known SCADA platform developed by the Austrian company COPA-DATA and, after acquisition, also offered under the ABB Ability™ zenon brand. With over 100,000 global installations, it is known as "SCADA for energy transition."
Key features: SunSpec/MODBUS support for inverters, advanced analysis per IEC 61724, configurable dashboards, substation and switchyard integration, and support for over 300 communication protocols including IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850, DNP3 and Modbus. For cybersecurity, zenon complies with IEC 62443-4-1.
Solar application: Dedicated Solar PV SCADA Application Set with templates and pre-defined object libraries to accelerate projects. Suitable for large-scale plants (hundreds of megawatts) with reporting without annual subscription fees.
Source: COPA-DATA Solar PV Automation
Power Factors Unity SCADA
Unity SCADA by Power Factors is designed for large-scale solar plants. It integrates with Power Plant Controller (PPC) for grid control and production optimization.
Capabilities: Monitoring and control of inverters, trackers, weather station, transformers and switchgear; sub-second data collection from thousands of tags; IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850, DNP3, Modbus TCP/RTU protocols; and secure architecture with ISO 27001, 27017, 27019 certifications and NERC CIP and IEC 62443 compliance.
Reference projects: 800 MW plant in Qatar (over 3,200 inverters and 2 million bifacial modules), 260 MW plant in Texas, and hybrid solar+battery projects with total capacity above 1 GW.
Source: Power Factors Unity SCADA
Emerson Ovation Green SCADA
Emerson provides SCADA solutions for CSP and PV plants with the Ovation platform, including Grid Interface Control and Power Plant Controller for frequency, voltage and reactive power management.
Meteocontrol VCOM and SCADA Center
VCOM (Virtual Control Room) is meteocontrol's cloud platform for monitoring PV plant portfolios worldwide. Features include: automatic fault analysis, PR calculation per IEC 61724-1, satellite data integration for sites without irradiance sensors, and CMMS for maintenance management.
SCADA Center is meteocontrol's on-premise solution for large sites in remote locations with unstable internet. It is used with certified blue'Log XC controller (grid code compliant) in over 90 countries.
Source: Meteocontrol VCOM
Inverter Vendor Portals
- SMA Sunny Portal: Classic and ennexOS versions; monitoring, configuration and data display; ennexOS has ISO/IEC 27001 certification. Webconnect for small systems up to 4 inverters.
- SolarEdge Monitoring: Ethernet, RS485, ZigBee, Wi-Fi and cellular support; multi-inverter and third-party Modbus device connection.
- Fronius Solar.web: Monitoring solution for Fronius products with web and mobile app.
These portals are typically suitable for small and medium plants alongside inverters from the same vendor; for multi-brand sites or large plants, independent platforms like zenon or Unity are preferred.
IEC 61724 Standard
The international standard IEC 61724 guides monitoring of PV system performance and covers irradiance measurement, ambient temperature, wind speed, voltage, current and electrical power, data collection systems, sampling interval and data quality control. The new IEC TS 61724-2:2025 focuses on power performance indicators and capacity assessment methods. Choosing a platform compliant with this standard is essential for reporting and performance comparison.
Summary and Selection Criteria
Solar SCADA selection depends on project scale, equipment vendor diversity, grid requirements and budget. For large plants (tens to hundreds of MW), platforms like zenon or Unity are more suitable; for dispersed portfolios, cloud solutions like VCOM are efficient; for small single-brand sites, vendor portals suffice. IEC 61724 compliance, common protocol support and cybersecurity are key selection criteria.