NEWS


Home battery trial aims to increase electricity network capacity to enable more solar homes and save


£millions for customers


QINOUS ESS Q COMPACT REVEALED‐


QINOUS, a manufacturer of smart energy storage systems, developed an extremely compact system in the power range from 30 to 200 kW power and up to 335 kWh capacity.


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oixa, Northern Powergrid and Energise Barnsley have teamed up in a ground-breaking trial to demonstrate how clusters of home batteries can increase capacity on the electricity network and enable more homes to install solar panels.


Moixa Smart Batteries will be installed in 40 homes and linked in a virtual power plant in the first project to study how this solution can reduce peak solar output onto the electricity networks when there is low local demand and save customers millions in the cost of running the UK’s power network.


Electricity distributor Northern Powergrid, is funding


installation of the batteries in Oxspring, near Barnsley, in properties owned by Barnsley Council and managed by Berneslai Homes. Community energy company Energise Barnsley has rolled out solar to homes in the area but came up against some network constraints in the village which meant that five houses could not be connected within the timescales of the project. The trial will include all 30 homes in the housing estate with solar PV panels plus 10 others without.


Simon Daniel, CEO of Moixa, said: “Batteries will allow the electricity system to support much higher levels of low- carbon renewable power and increase UK energy independence. By managing clusters of home batteries in a virtual power plant and allowing homeowners to use more of their solar energy, thereby exporting less, we believe we can significantly reduce peak solar generation output onto the network. This will allow more homes to go solar without imposing new costs on network operators. “Solar homes with batteries can halve their electricity bills, and this solution will become increasingly popular as costs of storage and PV fall. We are working closely with Northern Powergrid and this project will deliver insights to develop incentives which we hope will allow us to roll out solar plus storage to tens of thousands of homes in their region, by creating a business case for homeowners to invest and also by increasing the number of solar connections allowed on each substation.”


The £250,000 trial will seek to demonstrate that the virtual power plant can reduce peak solar output onto the network sufficiently to enable panels to be installed on more homes using existing substations and cable net- works. If successful, Northern Powergrid believes UK network operators could save millions for customers.


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Occupying only up to 4.5 square meters floor space, the QINOUS ESS QCompact includes a complete AC storage system and energy management system. The system is ideally suited for use in remote regions of the UK with no connection to a national grid as well as for grid-connected use in either full commercial or even community applications. “Like all our storage solu- tions, the QINOUS ESS QCompact is easy to install and operate,” says Stephen Heinrich, MD of QINOUS. “What makes the system special is its compactness


and performance range. It contains the most storage capacity in the least space, including the power electron- ics, the lithium-ion batteries, and a specially developed energy management system. All this makes the ESS QCompact unique in the market.”


The compact storage sys- tem provides up to 200 kVA of power and has a capacity of up to 335 kWh, while taking up just 3.0 to 4.5 square meters of floor space and can be shipped in a high-cube container.


The integrated, comprehen- sive energy management sys- tem ensures a secure and efficient power supply. It man- ages the flow of energy between various generation units (e.g. solar plants, diesel generators, energy storage system) & controls frequency


and voltage in the grid. The integrated black start function makes off-grid operation pos- sible. Thus, area networks can be stably supplied in the event of a power failure. QINOUS monitors the state of the components along with a variety of system parameters. The system performance is accessable via secure access at a user-friendly web-based monitoring system.


The energy storage housing is made of aluminum and high quality insulation material. The interior is divided into two compartments.


The area for the batteries and electronics is fully temperature-regulated and almost airtight to protect the components against ageing resulting from high tempera- tures, dust, salt mist, insects, and moisture. The other key compartment contains the heat exchanger and transformer. A QINOUS ESS Qcompact M will be installed shortly in a village in Tanzania. Together with an existing solar facility, it will ensure a clean energy supply. “The solar facility in combination with our storage unit offers the ideal solution for the village to gain more independence from expensive, environmentally harmful diesel fuel,” says Busso von Bismarck, Head of Business Development at QINOUS.


Landis+Gyr delivers active voltage monitoring from the grid's edge


andis+Gyr has announced the addition of real-time voltage monitoring capabilities to its grid analytics suite of products. The new functionality will provide utilities with improved awareness of sudden voltage variances that impact the quality of service for the end user. Landis+Gyr's analytics capabilities also provide intelligence into the performance of weakened transformers and failing voltage regulators. “Our existing voltage visualization solution leverages expertise at the edge of the grid to help grid operators visualize voltage levels across the entire system," Dave Connaker, General Manager of Landis+Gyr's Analytics Solutions, tells UKPN. "This new voltage monitoring functionality aids the utility to actively monitor dynamically changing conditions in real-time to improve reliability and system design."


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As distribution systems become more complex, utilities are challenged with ensuring the delivery of high-quality power to all points on their distribution systems. Using Landis+Gyr's solutions, utilities can access advanced visualisation tools and interactive drill-down capabilities to quickly assess voltage profiles along a feeder and identify voltage conditions outside of target ranges. The voltage monitoring capability allows utilities to avoid power quality issues, minimize customer complaints and reduce field effort by providing more accurate guidance to line crews. Landis+Gyr's cost-effective platform helps utilities operate the grid more efficiently, safely and reliably by providing a system-wide voltage analysis that monitors and reports based on real-time network measurements, giving utilities the ability to actively visualize and display voltages across their distribution grids all the way down to the end-user.


DECEMBER ‐ JANUARY 2017 UK POWER NEWS


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