Solectria gets $2.1M to develop integrated smart grid ready PV inverters with utility communications

Solectria Renewables has been awarded a $2.1 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract to develop integrated smart-grid ready photovoltaic (PV) inverters with utility communications in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Detroit Edison, National Grid and Xcel Energy. The awarded contract is part of the DOE's SunShot Initiative which accelerates the development of cost-competitive solar technologies.

"Most of the grid tied PV inverters installed in United States have been designed to meet the industrial standard guidelines defined by UL1741 and IEEE1547.  The main intentions are focused on generating real power effectively and disconnecting inverters from the power system in any grid side abnormal operation conditions," Soonwook Hong, Ph.D., Senior Power Electronics Engineer, Solectria Renewables told FierceSmartGrid. "This concept was reasonable in that the percentage of PV generation in the power grid can be insignificant.  However, nowadays, the increasing capacity of PV generation cannot be ignored and utility company wants to have more features from the PV generations." 

The smart inverter will include all the features of conventional generator systems (including governor and exciter) to meet the technology demands of users, according to Hong. 

"In addition, smart grid inverters can be operated with the energy storage systems to expand the operating hours and/or stably generate power during peak load hours to meet the power demand, which will increase the power system stability," Hong said. 

For more:
- see this release

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