Helical, the London-focused commercial property developer, engaged Arc to provide long-term asset management oversight for the rooftop solar installation at The Bower, the company’s mixed-use office and retail development in Old Street.
The system had been installed by a third-party contractor several years earlier. The brief was to bring structured performance monitoring, contractor oversight, and quarterly reporting to the asset — in a format the Helical asset management team could use to report up to fund management.
Arc was appointed as the independent asset manager for the system. Our scope covered four functions: continuous performance monitoring against modelled yield; appointment and oversight of the O&M contractor; quarterly financial and technical reporting; and lifecycle consultancy across warranty, equipment replacement, and refurbishment cycles.
Arc does not employ maintenance engineers and does not perform the physical maintenance work. The O&M contractor was procured competitively and is managed by Arc against agreed SLAs. This separation is the structural basis on which our oversight is credible — we have no commercial interest in the contractor’s appointment or performance.
Within the first reporting cycle, Arc identified that the system was operating approximately 8% below its modelled yield. Root cause investigation identified two contributing factors: a partial-shading issue introduced by adjacent works, and a string-monitoring fault that had gone unreported by the previous management arrangement. Both were resolved.
The system has since operated at a performance ratio above 0.82, in line with the original design specification. Quarterly reporting is delivered to the Helical asset management team in a format aligned to their existing portfolio reporting templates.
Arc brought us the independent oversight layer we had been missing. The reporting is fund-grade and the contractor management means we no longer have to triage technical issues in-house.