SOLAR AND STORAGE
WA TRIALS
BROADEN HORIZON
FOR MICROGRIDS by Monaaf Al-Falahi, Technical Program Coordinator, Energy Networks Australia
Horizon Power is in the final stage of a three-year microgrid trial in Carnarvon, Western Australia. This ground-breaking work aims at better understanding the effects of renewable energy generation and network connected battery systems and explores options for visibility and control of distributed energy resources (DERs). The results are fascinating.
T
ypically, Horizon Power’s portfolio of systems are relatively small and geographically isolated microgrids. Renewable energy generation is growing to become one of the largest generators on many of these microgrids, which presents increasing risk in the form of renewable energy variability. The Carnarvon microgrid trials, which started in 2018, work to address these challenges by exploring options to better integrate DERs in regional and remote community microgrids. The intent is to provide data-driven understanding of the impact of weather, particularly cloud events, on the power system and how to leverage visibility and control of DERs to manage the potential of high DER penetration. Weather impact on solar generation 82 participants with PV systems in Carnarvon in Western Australia took part in the trials. The PV power output on these 82 premises were metered separately to gather data about the true loads that have been masked by PV for over a decade. The use of monitoring devices provided customers with insights, giving them better understanding of energy efficiency and opportunities to manage their power use.
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Data collected from these customers’ PV systems was also used to understand the impact of weather on the solar PV generation. Figure 1 shows the data from the PV systems of the trial participants, which represent about 3MW of PV currently connected to the Carnarvon network. Each colour represents the PV solar system output of one system. As can be seen, the data shows how the PV generation is impacted significantly by cloud events on a typical cloudy day. These sudden changes in the solar generation negatively impact the network voltage and
hence stability of the grid. To mitigate these impacts, the PV systems’ outputs need to be managed in a way that preserves the stability of the network.
DER control and visibility The trials installed ten new PV/battery systems and upgraded six existing customer PV systems to include a battery and a Reposit Box. A commercial solar farm also received a partial upgrade so the trials could control a portion of its capacity. The trials used the Reposit Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform on these 17 DER systems to learn how to manage the
Figure 1. The power generated by the trial participants’ PV system in one day (Source: Horizon Power’s DER Trials and Carnarvon DER Trial).
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