Satcon Awarded $2 Million Grant By California Energy Commission

Satcon Technology Corporation, A123 Systems, Renewable Energy Services (RES), and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) have announced  that they have been selected by the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) to receive a $2 million grant to develop and demonstrate methods to reduce the effects of renewable power intermittency. The grant is part of a larger initiative to develop the core solutions to enable higher penetration of renewable power onto the electric grid through advanced solar energy harvest, storage and array control capabilities.

Utility-scale solar deployment is a crucial part in attaining California's renewable energy goals, including achieving 33 percent of utility loads in the state with renewable energy by 2020. Successfully managing the intermittent nature of solar energy remains a challenge for Utilities looking to increase the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants on their grid networks. This Satcon led project is designed to address these grid integration challenges through the development of PV integrated electric energy storage systems capable of voltage and frequency support, PV firming, real power dispatch and ramp rate control. The project team will develop, test and demonstrate the proposed technology at SMUD's corporate headquarters in Sacramento, California.

"One of SMUD's key challenges is to ensure that the grid is able to serve loads at all times while accommodating higher levels of renewable energy integration. Addressing key issues, such as ensuring a stable power flow into the grid from renewable sources, is critical to the success of using renewables as a major energy supplier," said Mark Rawson of SMUD. "Satcon's expertise in advanced solar inverter system technologies and experience with large-scale solar plant grid integration, combined with A123's advanced lithium ion battery technology, will help us address these key challenges via this project."

The project is part of the Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Renewable Program, which funds initiatives that help meeting research, development and demonstration needs related to more rapid and environmentally responsible deployment of utility-scale renewable energy. The project will be the first of its kind to demonstrate a highly efficient and cost effective electric energy storage system specifically designed and optimized for grid tied PV applications.

The system will be comprised of a 500kW PV array, Satcon's 500kW PowerGate Plus utility-ready inverter solution and a 500kWh advanced lithium ion battery energy storage system from A123 that will leverage a high power, high voltage version of Satcon's battery power conditioning system (Satcon Spectrum PCS) featuring Satcon's EDGE Adaptive Control Architecture (EDGE ACA) to enable voltage stabilization, frequency control and continuous operation of the PV plant in the event of major grid instabilities including faults.