Swiss company ABB is supplying smart power systems to solar farms in Spain with a combined capacity of 500MW that are being built by Solarcentury.
The projects in Extremadura and Andalusia will include ABB technology to monitor and control the energy flowing from more than 1 million solar panels at the sites.
ABB’s Ekip UP smart power unit reduces the need for additional circuit breakers, wiring and assembly work, and so reduces capital investment costs by up to 70%, the company said.
The unit also reduces the number of low-voltage auxiliary panels planned for the installation by 50%.
The device’s embedded automatic transfer switching logic enables contactors to manage the supply of low-voltage auxiliary loads, such as for lighting, CCTV, HVAC and servers, ABB said.
Ekip UP can also directly connect new and existing systems to the ABB Ability cloud, enabling remote monitoring of assets and supporting predictive maintenance strategies.
ABB global product manager for ABB Ability Ekip UP Fabio Monachesi, said: “ABB enables companies and communities around the world to access cleaner, smarter power, aiding the adoption of renewables.
“ABB’s solution for the new generation of 800V AC photovoltaic systems reduces hardware costs, increasing the viability of solar projects.”
Solarcentury chief operating officer Steven Taylor said: “Solarcentury is committed to making solar power more accessible.
“Working with ABB on the low-voltage systems that control solar farms gives us a more innovative, efficient solution that costs less to install and operate.
“And, by sourcing the complete solution from ABB, we have a trusted global partner committed to improving the reliability of the plants for their entire lifetime.”
ABB Ability UK market developer Atif Saleri said: “We worked closely as one global team to create a replicable architecture.
“ABB’s Customer Experience Center in Italy, Solarcentury’s UK headquarters, and project execution teams in Spain worked collaboratively on a solution for the global market that could also meet local standards and requirements.
“Together we identified several optimisation opportunities leveraging the use of around 200 Ekip UP digital units.
“Adopting this digital device as a feeder relay with protections integrated, for example, removed the need for additional low-voltage circuit breakers where the local standards allowed.
“The unit’s built-in protocols also enabled the provision of real-time power quality data to the supervision system without other network analysers.”
Solarcentury head of application engineering David Minnis said: “The Ekip UP allowed us to remove many individual protection and control devices and converged these into one device allowing a faster build time and simplifying set up, monitoring and ongoing maintenance and operation of the plant.
“This provides a much cleaner and better technical solution.”