eks Energy’s Hybrid Solution, based on AMPS and EMSystems, has enabled AES to develop the first huge solar-plus.-storage project in Kauai Island (USA).
- The project has been built using eks Energy’s Advanced Multiport Power System, a Hybrid Conversion Power Electronics together with Proprietary Supervision and Control Platform.
- The project plan consists of a PV-plus-Battery System achieving 28 MW coupled to a 100MWh Battery Energy Storage System.
- It is the largest hybrid solar-plus-storage projects in the USA with a DC-coupled Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
- By 2045, the state of Hawaii intends to utilize 100% renewable energy.
eks Energy with its HybridSystem was able to dispatch the total of the power generated by the PV plant, ensuring a consistent night-time power with the difficulties of an Island Grid while balancing generation with peak demand.
We developed for our client the Advanced Multiport Power Station, a new DC-coupled PV +Storage Power Converter which allows a total dispatching of the power generated by the PV plant, ensuring a consistent night-time power. All the functionalities as dispatch, frequency response and voltage regulation let us claim that the manageability of this clean-energy facility can be compared with that of traditional power plants.
The DC-coupled connection between the PV field and batteries is more efficient than AC-coupled approaches and, additionally, stores energy that would otherwise be lost due to the inverter clipping. Hybrid DC-Coupling entails higher complexity both in the engineering stage and in the energy integration into the grid, due to the combination of PV and Battery Sources in the DC Buses, and the MPPT Management Algorithms to take real advantage of the coupling.
As a result, the largest solar-plus-utility-scale-battery system in the state of Hawaiʻi (28MW/116MWh) and one of the biggest storage systems in the world. The plant provides solar energy with the benefits of battery-based energy storage for optimal balancing of generation with peak demand at significantly less than the current cost of oil-fired power. It is estimated that the project will reduce fossil fuel usage by over 3.7 million gallons yearly.
