800,000 Microinverters Remotely Retrofitted on Oahu—in One Day
March 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand that include Enphase products and services.
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Enphase systems are now helping stabilize the grid in Hawaii.
Via: IEEE:
Utilities are asking more of the rooftop solar systems that increasingly are popping up throughout their distribition grids. As we profile in this month’s Spectrum, leading utilities are deputizing solar system’s inverters to function as junior grid regulators to help stabilize the grid. Hawaiian Electric Company and inverter manufacturer Enphase Energy just showed how swiftly such upgrades can happen.
In a single day Enphase and HECO remotely reprogrammed some 800,000 microinverters attached to individual photovoltaic panels on Oahu, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the island’s distributed solar capacity according to Ameet Konkar, Enphase Energy’s senior director for strategic initiatives. Those systems deliver up to 140 megawatts, nearly as much power as the state’s largest conventional power plant, says Konkar.
Oahu needs higher-functioning solar systems because it leads the U.S. in per capita solar penetration, with 12 percent of residential customers operating rooftop systems. Island grids are more susceptible to even small perturbations, such as occurs when trees fall on wires and lightning strikes. The solar upgrade will help HECO’s grid ride through the resulting power glitches.
Whereas standards required solar systems to shut down at the first sign of substandard AC voltage and frequency, HECO and Enphase’s upgrade instructs the PV microinverters to ride through such irregularities. Like the momentum in a conventional power plant’s spinning turbines, the solar systems’ enduring power generation should help restabilize the grid’s AC signal.
Wow. 140MW, I wouldn’t have guessed it. So, low voltage ride through, or, zero voltage ride through, “help restablize the grid’s AC signal.”
I remember when Windpower was first gaining ground in California’s Altamont Pass. The utility (PG&E) hated it – understandably – it was a nusance. Now modern Windplants are used to for VAR control on the grid.
Anyway, go to show you never can tell. A toast to Eli Whitney…