Jacob Marshall, VP & GM, Power Conversion at Nextpower, explains how modular inverter design, parts access, and a customer-enabled service program can reduce downtime and improve long-term plant performance.
Central inverter performance is measured daily and extended over decades of operation, which makes the ability to service the equipment without lengthy downtime a critical part of its long-term value.
The challenge for asset owners and O&M providers is that servicing an inverter depends on a chain of resources outside an operator's direct control. A technician needs to be available, properly trained and authorized to work on the equipment. The right diagnostic tools and replacement parts need to be accessible. And the inverter itself needs to be designed so that a component-level issue can be addressed swiftly and without unnecessarily taking more generating capacity offline.
Solving those pain points is key to Nextpower’s Power Conversion platform and customer-enabled service program, designed to give qualified technicians for owner operators and third-party O&M providers the training, tools, and parts access needed to service Nextpower inverters and PCS equipment themselves.
That service model is supported by Nextpower inverter’s architecture, built on modular, field-replaceable power modules, readily accessible components, and an open-source spare-parts approach designed to simplify common service actions.
Leading the business is Jacob Marshall, General Manager, Power Conversion at Nextpower. Jacob brings more than 20 years of experience in power conversion, including roles with some of the industry’s leading inverter and power electronics companies. He founded APEX Power in 2023 and helped architect its service-first approach to inverter design and customer support before APEX became part of Nextpower in July 2026.
In this Q&A, Jacob draws on that experience to explain how these common industry service challenges shape Nextpower’s approach to inverter design, how the customer-enabled service program works, and how parts access and service training can help asset owners and O&M teams reduce downtime and protect long-term plant performance.
Q: You've spent much of your career in power conversion. What has been the most common pain point with central inverters in utility-scale solar plants?
Jacob Marshall: One of the most consistent pain points I’ve seen throughout my career in power conversion is serviceability. Customers need and care about efficiency, reliability, and the technical performance of the inverter, but equally impactful is the strength of the service infrastructure and how that equipment will be supported for the life of the project.
For asset owners, there are three key questions: Do you have a qualified service resource available? How quickly can they respond? And when they get to the site, do they actually have the training, tools, and parts they need to resolve the issue?
That last piece is where third-party O&M teams can run into real constraints. You may have a very capable technician already at the plant, but they aren't authorized to perform a certain repair, don't have access to the OEM's diagnostic tools, or can't effectively source the replacement parts needed. Now the customer must bring the OEM into the process, and every additional hour waiting for the right resource or part can mean lost production and revenue.
This is the industry dynamic Nextpower is changing with our power conversion platform: giving customers more options to resolve service tasks quickly, maintain availability, and keep the plant producing.
We have training plans for every level of service, from preventive and reactive maintenance all the way up to self-commissioning of our equipment.
Q: How will Nextpower address that common serviceability pain point with its approach to inverter and PCS design and service?
Jacob Marshall: In customer conversations throughout my career, probably 30 percent of the discussion is about the technical details of the inverter, and the rest is about service: Who can work on it? How quickly can they respond? Will they have the right parts? What happens to production while the issue is being resolved?
Nextpower is first addressing those concerns in the design of the inverter. The system is built for ease of installation, with a modular architecture that simplifies service of the most complex components. Nextpower’s power modules, for example, are the most complex and proprietary element of the system, but they are designed for straightforward replacement in the field.
We also paid close attention to parts. Spare-parts infrastructure is a major source of customer frustration in the inverter space, so we designed the platform with readily accessible components and use widely available parts where practical.
We then built the service program around that, giving qualified customers and third-party O&M teams greater ability to perform service on equipment themselves.
The overall goal is to remove unnecessary barriers between identifying an issue and resolving it quickly and efficiently. That means designing an inverter that is easier to service and giving qualified teams in the field the ability and resources to actually service it.
Q: How exactly does Nextpower’s power conversion service program work?
Jacob Marshall: The service program that we have at Nextpower is fundamental to me, and it usually brightens eyes across the table when customers learn about it. It is both a program and a cultural mindset to ensure we will not be possessive of any aspect of service to ensure customers can accelerate any needs to maximize asset uptime.
The “customer-enabled” service model gives qualified teams more control over system maintenance to reduce dependency on OEM-only service pathways. Training is a key aspect of the program itself. We have training plans for every level of service, from preventive and reactive maintenance all the way up to self-commissioning of our equipment. These trained teams will also have access to all the same diagnostics tools that we do.
That pairs with an open-source spare parts program, which is now backed by the robust supply chain of Nextpower. This means the customer has options. They can buy a component from us, like a breaker for example, because we will have it in inventory thanks to our integrated platform approach. Alternatively, we can point them to approved off-the-shelf providers online or nearby.
Q: Can you explain how the design of the inverter itself supports that service model?
Jacob Marshall: One of the biggest contributors to repair time is parts availability. A technician can get to the site, diagnose the fault, and still be unable to complete the repair because the replacement part isn't available. The more specialized or proprietary the components are, the greater the risk that you're waiting for something to ship while the equipment remains offline.
We designed our inverter platform to reduce that dependency. For many of the components that may need to be serviced or replaced, we're using readily accessible, widely available parts where practical. If something relatively simple like a fan needs to be replaced, we don't want the customer waiting on a proprietary component from us if an approved replacement can be sourced locally.
Nextpower's supply chain gives customers another option. We can maintain inventory of many of those components ourselves at our centralized hubs, regional depots, and typically right on the project site. Combined with the service program, that means a trained service team has both the ability to perform the work and multiple paths to get the parts required to complete it.
That's really what we're designing toward across the product and service model: fewer bottlenecks between identifying a problem and resolving it. Faster service actions and better mean time to repair will translate into higher availability, more energy and revenue for the asset owner, and less service burden on third-party O&M teams.
Q: How does the modular architecture of the inverter impact serviceability? And what happens when a power module goes offline?
Jacob Marshall: For Nextpower and our customers, the value of modularity comes down to how much of the inverter will keep producing if an individual component needs service.
This is the key and depending on the nature of the fault: If one power module goes offline, the rest of the inverter stays online. The system steps down only by the capacity of that affected module rather than taking the entire inverter out of production. That limits the impact of a component-level issue while the service team addresses it. With multi-layer modularity at the full 6 module system level, if a power-module does need to be isolated, the dedicated AC breaker and DC disconnect for that segment will automatically operate, and the rest of the system continues to do its job converting energy.
The power modules are also designed for very simple field replacement. So, you're combining two things: isolating the impact of the fault and making the affected component straightforward to replace, safely. That is where modularity and serviceability work together to protect availability.
Ultimately, availability is the outcome the asset owner cares about. Nextpower backs that approach by offering availability guarantees.
Q: What does it take for a customer or third-party O&M team to become qualified to service the inverter?
Jacob Marshall: If we're going to give customer and third-party O&M teams the ability to service our inverters independently, we also need to make sure they're fully qualified to do the work. That's why the training behind our customer-enabled service program is rigorous.
You will not watch a slide show presentation and get a participation medal. We provide thorough technical training at one of our service training centers, then move to hands-on work with our demo units where technicians have to demonstrate that knowledge and pass the test.
That training also extends into the field. We can work alongside service teams during commissioning, including commissioning the first site with them. We want technicians to learn how to work on the equipment in the same kinds of conditions they'll encounter when they're responsible for it.
When someone completes that process, the goal is for them to be confident, capable and reliable as an independent service resource for the Nextpower inverter fleet, giving qualified teams greater control over service while maintaining a high standard for the people performing that work.
Q: Can you give an example of how Nextpower’s customer-enabled approach to service changes the dynamic on site, in the event of a fault?
Jacob Marshall: Let's say a power module needs to be replaced. With our approach, the on-site O&M team can handle that repair themselves if they've completed the service program training.
The power module is the most complex proprietary component in the inverter, but replacing it only requires our level-one training. The team knows how to diagnose the issue, has access to the same service tools we do, and ideally already has the replacement module on site. From identifying the issue to restoring full production, that service event could be resolved in under an hour. Compare that with an inverter that isn't fully modular, where the customer may need to rely on the OEM for diagnostics, parts, and replacement. Now you've added technician availability, parts inventory, equipment logistics, labor, and cost to the service event. Depending on those factors, an entire multi-megawatt block could be offline anywhere from days to weeks.
That's the practical value of combining modularity with an open approach to parts and service: reduce how much capacity is affected, simplify the repair itself, and give the team already responsible for the site's performance the ability to get back to full production faster.
Q: Looking ahead, how could Nextpower continue to improve inverter service over the operating life of the asset?
Jacob Marshall: The next opportunity for Nextpower is using more of the data coming from the inverter to make our service program increasingly proactive. Instead of waiting for a fault to occur and then opening a service ticket, that data and analytics can be connected to the NX One™ software platform to give customers a better view of equipment health and plant performance.
Over time, that advances into predictive analytics. If we can identify changes in operating behavior that indicate a potential issue, we can start diagnosing it and preparing the appropriate service response before it becomes a larger performance event. That could mean knowing what action is needed, identifying the right part, and starting that process before the customer would otherwise need to contact us.
One initiative already underway at our Nashville office is adding a NERC CIP-certified Network Operations Center (NOC). For interested customers, that would enable us to continuously monitor the power conversion equipment and give our service teams another way to identify and respond to potential issues earlier. That capability fits directly into where we want to take the service model: increasingly proactive support backed by real operating data.
There is a performance opportunity as well. We can combine inverter analytics with the production estimates and models we've developed to give customers a clearer view of what the plant should be producing over a given period and compare that with actual performance. Bringing that information together with capabilities like TrueCapture® energy control technology can create a more complete and confident view of lifetime plant performance.
And this is where power conversion being part of Nextpower really changes what is possible. The inverter or PCS doesn't have to operate as an isolated piece of equipment. Nextpower and our customers have data coming from the tracker, electrical systems, weather stations, sensors, field robotics, and now power conversion, with software that can increasingly connect those systems and provide a real-time view of what is happening across the plant.
Customers can start with an inverter that is easier to maintain and repair, then connect it into Nextpower’s broader technology ecosystem to better understand how the entire plant is actually performing against how it should be performing. Over the life of the asset, that gives more opportunities to identify and mitigate risk earlier, improve availability, and help the plant produce more consistently and closer to its true potential.