Solectria Renewables Awarded $2.1 Million DOE Contract for Smart-Grid PV Inverters

Posted in Smart Grid, Solar Power on September 6th, 2011 by News Desk –

Photo credit: Solectria Renewables

Lawrence, Mass. — Solectria Renewables, a manufacturer of photovoltaic inverters, has been awarded a $2.1 million contract by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop smart-grid ready photovoltaic (PV) inverters integrated with utility communications networks.

Under the contract, Solectria is working in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Detroit Edison, National Grid and Xcel Energy.

The key objectives of the program are to expand PV inverter capabilities, including “head-end” communications at the utility operations center; integration into the distribution management system; “back-end” PV plant master controller; and smart-grid functionality built into the inverters.

According to Solectria, Detroit Edison, National Grid and Xcel Energy will supply test sites ranging from 605kW to 30MW, with each of the sites testing different aspects of the technologies being developed by EPRI and Solectria Renewables.

Current utility-scale PV inverters are not well integrated with existing DMS control distribution switches, load-tap changers, capacitor banks, and other circuit operation distributed resources, according to Solectria.

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