Inverter Manufacturer Ingeteam Equips Spain's 1st Solar+ Storage System

• This solar plant belongs to the Campo Arañuelo photovoltaic complex, created by Iberdrola in the Almaraz region of Extremadura.
• It is also the very first Spanish project in which Ingeteam has set up a brand-new converter that permits batteries to be set up in a dispersed manner within the photovoltaic or pv plant.

Spanish inverter manufacturer Ingeteam recently disclosed that the company was chosen by electric utility Iberdrola to be its technology partner for the purpose of equipping its solar plant at the Campo Arañuelo solar complex, Spain, with a battery energy storage system option.

The 40 MW Arañuelo III photovoltaic or pv plant is already in operation, reportedly the first large-scale solar plant in Spain that incorporates a 3MW/ 9MWh battery storage system. This solar plant belongs to the Campo Arañuelo solar complex, established by Iberdrola in the Almaraz region of Extremadura as well as composed of the Arañuelo I, II and also III solar plants, with an overall mounted capacity of 143 MW.

Ingeteam has carried out a turnkey supply of the storage system for this plant. "The company has supplied lithium-ion batteries, the assimilation of the batteries in 45-foot containers, converters, the SCADA surveillance system, civil works, the field assembly of the storage system as well as its subsequent start-up," said Ingeteam in an official statement.

In addition, Ingeteam has also organized supplying the electronic security as well as control system for the Arañuelo III substation, stated the company. The scope includes systems that are accountable for controlling and safeguarding the plant's energy emptying line, the 30/132kV step-up transformer, the collector circuits and also the storage system connection circuit, supplying the CORE renewables control center with details as well as real-time access to any of the aspects.

A new battery converter

" In addition to being the first large-scale solar plant to incorporate batteries in Spain, this project has an additional novelty, and that is that the battery storage system has been included within the photovoltaic plant in a distributed manner and also adhering to a DC- Coupling or coupling in direct existing," claims Ingeteam.

In this setting, the batteries are installed inside the solar area and also the battery converters share the direct existing connection with the solar inverters, which, according to the business, has the complying with primary technical advantages:

• Possibility of benefiting from the extra power of the photovoltaic panels that is not used in the hours of maximum production (Clipping Recapture).
• It permits to decrease the losses when charging the batteries from the solar area since the connection in between the panels as well as the batteries passes just through the DC/DC converter. Releasing is also a lot more reliable, considering that a power transformer is conserved contrasted to the AC-connected service.

Ingeteam states that hybridizing solar generation with energy storage in batteries has actually been carried out using the inverter manufacturer's new battery converter: the INGECON SUN STORAGE Power DC-DC series.

This converter resolves being coupled with the direct current input of a photovoltaic or pv inverter, thus acquiring in practice a hybrid central inverter with direct connection to both photovoltaic panels as well as batteries, as well as with a single alternating present outcome to connect to the LV/MV transformer, the business clarifies.