UK – 0.24MWp Solar Enabled at Constrained HV Site

GridGEM Enables G100 Solar PV Project at Industrial Site with Significant Physical & Connection Constraints

Overview & Client Problem

Sungift Energy (https://www.sungiftsolar.co.uk/) were contracted by Brean Leisure (https://www.brean.com/) to install 240 kWp of solar photovoltaics (PV) at their main site in Somerset, UK. The site had a Grid export constraint and the project was made complex due to the existence of a high voltage (HV) incoming electrical supply and inverter positions in multiple locations that were a significant distance from the HV monitoring point.

Normal inverter export limiting solutions could not solve this problem and so Sungift engaged Argand to design, build and supply a G100 compliant GridGEM solution that enabled communication across the site with the different inverters and met the DNO’s additional G100 requirements.

Argand’s Solution

Argand designed, built and delivered a turnkey GridGEM export limitation control solution for the project. Argand implemented their “no shut down” monitoring solution (approved by the DNO) - this ensured that the site did not need to be shut-down when the system was connected. The GridGEM technology interfaced with the remote inverter control interfaces using fibre optics due to the distances between the import / export incoming supply to ensure that the system met the DNO’s response time requirements. The output of the solar inverters across the physically distant locations was managed dynamically and utilised a “fail safe” if the solar could not be reduced quickly enough due to on-site rapid power fluctuations. The GridGEM solution was fully G100 and G99 compliant.

Client Benefits

The result has been to enable the client to install their required solar PV at the site which would not have been possible without Argand’s GridGEM solution. This has meant that the project has been able to take place - leading to significant electrical energy cost savings and CO2 reductions at the site.