UK – 2.5MW Solar Co-Located with 6MW Wind Farm

GridGEM enables Co-Located Wind & Solar Project

Overview & Client Problem

Pennant Walters Group (http://pennantwalters.co.uk/) had an existing 6MW wind farm. They wanted to optimise the connection agreement and the overall power profile by co-locating an additional 2.5MW of solar photovoltaics (PV). As such, the client required a solution to dynamically manage the output of the solar PV in relation to the wind generation such that it did not break the existing 6MW export agreement with the DNO.

Ethical Power (www.ethical-power.com) were assigned the role of installation / EPC partner and contracted Argand Solutions to provide the constraints management solution.

The client also needed data to provide assurance and reporting for their asset owners. The Argand included collection, storage & management of the required data.

 
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Argand’s Solution

Argand designed, built and delivered a turnkey GridGEM export limitation control and monitoring solution for the project, working with the development / installation partner Ethical Power (https://ethical-power.com/). The GridGEM technology interfaced with the client’s inverter control system using fibre optic communications between the inverter location and the main 33kV high voltage grid connection point. Output of the solar 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 was fully G100 and G59 (G99 now) compliant. In addition, the GridGEM system incorporated a full monitoring system to collect, store, transmit and process the electrical data from the main incoming supply to provide the O&M team with data to support their reporting requirements - specifically in relation to how much energy was lost due to constraint management. Data is visualised via the GridEYE platform.

Client Benefits

The result has enabled the client to obtain greater revenues from the same connection and has improved their overall ROI for the project site. The combination of solar & wind also enables future opportunities with battery storage to interact with and improve their market opportunities.