RP Construction Services, Inc. (RPCS) designs, supplies, and builds utility-scale ground mount solar tracker projects. With over 700 projects and nearly two gigawatts completed or under construction, RPCS has distinguished itself as a leading subcontractor, and one of the only in the market to provide true turnkey service and support for solar tracker projects.
RPCS offers what no other solar tracker manufacturer or construction company in the industry can: bringing customers a simple, yet robust turnkey approach to design, procuring, and installing single axis solar tracker projects. Their defining methodology is the basis for their competitive advantage, functioning with the sole purpose of bringing installation simplicity to every project. Their approach means predictability and reliability, and allows RPCS to operate as a one-stop-shop for customers.
RPCS is an entirely self-performant organization with a suite of services including everything from producing optimized layouts, stamped design sets, and topo analyses to solar tracker and foundation post procurement, ancillary engineering services, and complete mechanical installation and commissioning. Opting for RPCS’s turnkey approach results in faster installation and commissioning times and provides a more streamlined, cost-effective strategy for customers to maximize project returns.
Here’s a closer look at how RPCS brings added value to its customer EPCs, developers, and municipal utilities to help de-burden and de-risk the construction and supply scope to streamline portfolio execution.
- HISTORY & EXPERIENCE
- SOLAR TRACKER TECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE
- IN-HOUSE ENGINEERING
- SELF-PERFORMING MOBILE TEAM & COMPANY OWNED EQUIPMENT
- QUALITY OF SERVICE
1. HISTORY & EXPERIENCE
Starting in 2009, the team behind RPCS helped deliver over 2.5 gigawatts of Array Technologies solar trackers to the utility market, allowing Array to reach a dominant 85% market share from 2009 to 2014. In 2015, RPCS extended its partnership with Array, launching an innovative turnkey service offering and becoming the first in the market to do so.
RPCS’s long pedigree and history with solar trackers gave them the rare perspective of witnessing both the rise and fall of new technologies, trends, and ideas. Array has spent the last three decades perfecting their product and is seen as the industry’s gold standard in solar tracking technology, which is why RPCS has chosen to partner with Array and exclusively install the Array product. RPCS is proud to support Array’s longstanding reputation of being the market’s most reliable solar tracker with the lowest risk, lowest operating cost, and lowest levelized cost of energy.
2. SOLAR TRACKER TECHNOLOGY EXPERTS
As Array’s trusted partner and the market’s leading provider of the DuraTrack® HZ v3 single axis solar tracker, RPCS knows solar trackers. Because RPCS crews focus entirely on installing the DuraTrack product, they’re more than familiar with its technology and have mastered its mechanical installation.
RPCS takes pride in establishing lasting relationships with both partners and customers alike. The team’s dedication to and expert knowledge of the Array tracker has helped establish RPCS as a trusted, long-term partner for not only Array, but some of the most respected EPCs, developers, and utilities throughout the nation. The team behind RPCS has fostered a more than 10-year partnership with Array, and has brought this history, experience, and product knowledge into every facet of the business, giving customers a trusted choice for seamless project execution and the ability to achieve higher project volume.
From irregular site boundaries and high security sites to projects built 14 feet above the ground, RPCS brings customers the market’s most reliable and trusted technology in tracking systems at the best total fielded cost offer on the market.
3. IN-HOUSE ENGINEERING
RPCS’s team of expert sales engineers understands the intricacies that make utility projects unique and is well-trained to help customers realize the full potential of a solar project’s footprint. RPCS maintains the ability to engineer projects quickly and accurately, and to optimize projects for both performance and cost while maintaining Array’s high standard of dependability for years to come.
“Project sites are becoming more challenging,” says RPCS Senior Structural Engineer Mario Colecchia, P.E. “RPCS works closely with our customers and partners to develop ingenious and cost-effective solutions to advance the projects through to completion.”
RPCS’s training and know-how are key to engineering solar tracker projects in-house in order to give even project owners and financers a competitive edge when it comes to planning and purchasing projects. RPCS controls the engineering of everything within scope, allowing them to make changes and know the ripple effects to ensure all ancillary adjustments are made at the same time to avoid schedule delays.
RPCS keeps installation concerns in mind throughout the engineering process, customizing engineering to each project’s needs while simplifying the process for construction crews to reduce cost and possible installation concerns. RPCS’s sales engineers are trained in topography analysis and can take topographical data from surveyors or ESRI, geographic information system software, to help highlight potential problem areas on site. RPCS provides planar studies and pile point plans along with their stamped Array design packages to create a more complete concept of a project’s final build. Team members can also help decipher geotechnical studies and how subsurface conditions might affect a project’s structural I-beams, information that is pivotal for grading considerations and structural implications that may play into cost and ease of installation. Considering factors such as these earlier in a project’s lifecycle reduces late-stage surprises, giving RPCS and the customer a chance to address any issues.
The attention to detail and proactive thinking that RPCS provides at each step of a project’s extent ensures customers receive the greatest tracker on the market with a fast, repeatable, and accurate installation process.
4. SELF-PERFORMING MOBILE TEAM & COMPANY-OWNED EQUIPMENT
RPCS is a fully licensed mechanical and electrical contractor, self-performing work throughout the country using company-owned equipment and highly mobile, world-class construction crews. RPCS relies on a core crew comprised of direct hires, all completely mobile and quickly deployed in order to carry out the simple, seamless installation of solar tracker projects.
Being able to effectively design, procure, and build a number of projects spread all over the country simultaneously is a major challenge. By having a highly skilled mobile team and company owned equipment, RPCS makes deployment simpler and build scope more streamlined while providing high-quality construction capability. What’s more, RPCS offers a 5-year labor warranty to match the product warranty upon commissioning a project, further standing by their work and adding value to their turnkey solution.
Training & Development
RPCS’s workforce is essential to the company’s success, which is why the company believes in investing in training and development of its employees to ensure professional, reliable service and skilled installation.
“Employees are the most important asset in our organization,” says RPCS Director of Training and Development Sean DuFosee. “That’s why we believe in investing in their safety and personal development, both of which are foundational to continuing our success in the solar industry.”
Development measures include daily training tips disseminated to all crew members, the “RPCS Academy” training and development program to train and certify crew members, and providing detailed, step-by-step installation guides to highlight installation methods and best practices.
Equipment & Maintenance
RPCS’s operations team helps deploy a preventative maintenance plan for all tools and heavy equipment to follow maintenance cycles and ensure their proper use.
Each site is equipped with a toolbox containing all the tools needed to install and QA/QC a project. Upon the completion of a project, toolboxes are shipped back to the warehouse for thorough inventory, maintenance, and any necessary repairs or replacements before being sent back out to a new project.
RPCS owns a number of machines, including pile drivers, drills, and a vibratory extractor, all equipped with GPS tags, tracking geographic location and machine hours. Crew members, which are trained in basic machine maintenance, perform daily preventative maintenance and scheduled maintenance to mitigate breakdowns to help projects stay on schedule. RPCS keeps a small stock of heavy equipment both in the machine itself for fast, onsite repair and in our stocking yards for ease of shipment to sites in case of necessary repairs. More complex maintenance is done by trusted mobile mechanics or by professionals with RPCS’s preferred network of regional or local repair shops.
Innovation
RPCS is constantly developing new, innovative ways for crew, equipment, and project management, as well as the many other intricacies of utility scale projects. To address such intricacies, and to keep projects on schedule and on budget, RPCS offers a robust mobile workforce application solution that enables RPCS to manage construction sites effectively from anywhere, anytime. RPCS developed in-house a custom mobile and desktop application specifically built to streamline job site reporting and to monitor progress. With this custom app, RPCS site leadership and project management teams can effectively oversee projects in real time while ensuring schedules are being met and safety and quality are maintained.
5. QUALITY OF SERVICE
As a leading subcontractor, RPCS’s mission is to provide the absolute best in service and support. Array Technologies has a market reputation for quality, and RPCS endeavors to deliver this same quality by upholding a high degree of excellence in all it achieves for the utility scale solar market.
Safety
Safety is paramount to RPCS’s operations and has upheld the best possible safety rating for a firm of its size for each year of operation. RPCS strives to achieve an injury-free and healthful workplace for its employees, and works toward minimizing effects on the surrounding environment to ensure the safety of community neighbors, contractors, and visitors. RPCS will continuously improve practices in light of advances in technology and new understandings in safety, health, and environmental science.
In addition to weekly safety tips distributed to crew members, RPCS provides each project with a site-specific safety and health manual that outlines plans and procedures for safe installation as well as on-the-job conduct.
Quality
RPCS goes to great lengths to ensure work is held to elevated standards. By leveraging a decade’s worth of experience and partnership with the industry’s solar tracker pioneer and gold standard, RPCS achieves quality through myriad diverse processes, like constructing in controlled environments with highly trained and skilled professionals, developing innovative ways to monitor projects and ensure proper installation, and implementing firm guidelines and procedures to ensure safety and quality control.
RPCS has worked with a wide range of industry partners, from local electricians to global development firms, all of whom chose RPCS for quality service that is truly an extension of the Array product.
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