Category — Company News

Optimal Power Solutions has been contracted for the supply of power conditioning units and system integration for three sites in the Kinabatangan District of Sabah, Malaysia.

Each site compromises a solar hybrid power system that is designed for the supply of electricity to three villages of KG Batu Darat/ Laut, Kg Kuamut and KG Kuamut Seberang. The total combined solar capacity of 430kW across the three villages is expected to reduce fuel consumption by a minimum of 50 per cent. Optimal Power Solutions will provide three proprietary inverters of a combined 710kW capacity. The inverters include 2 x 250kVA Hybrid Power Conditioner, 2 x 30kVA Hybrid Power Conditioner and 4 x 100kVA Grid Export Conditioner, (further HPC & GEC information is available on our products webpage or downloads section).

The sites are very remote and can only be accessed at times via river barges. The Kinabatangan floodplain is located on the east coast of Sabah, Borneo, it is considered of enormous environmental importance for wildlife and the local community as it is arguably the last forested, alluvial floodplain in Asia. Due to the remote location and delivery routes, the cost of landed diesel is high, averaging RM$8 to RM$9 per litre in recent years. It is estimated that the systems discounted payback period for the larger villages will be less than 10 years with scope for a shorter payback period should fuel prices escalate further.

Solar hybrid systems are a particularly viable option for remote area power supply. Optimal Power Solutions is pleased to offer a complete range of proprietary inverters with full service system integration and project development inclusive of remote system monitoring software packages.

For more information please visit our Products, Projects, or Services, webpage

The above map is courtesy of Google Maps 2010.

Optimal Power Solutions is the lead renewable energy technology provider for the system upgrade of the US Navy’s China Lakes testing and training facility.

This project site is located in the Superior Valley, U.S.A. Due to the remote nature of the site, the facility requires a self-contained electrical generating system that includes a large-scale photovoltaic system.

OPS is currently supplying the power conversion equipment and system integration for this system upgrade. The upgrade aims to optimize the energy output of the site’s existing PV modules (210kWp). The existing modules will not be replaced however the previous inverter will be de-commissioned.

Due to the limitations of the existing PV modules to operate at high voltages, OPS was required to design and implement a custom boost-mode MPPT charger. This newly designed boost mode charger will enable the best possible integration of the existing PV array.

This is the same US Navy testing and training facility where an OPS system was previously commissioned in early 2009. It is expected this system upgrade will be commissioned in mid-April 2010.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) of Bangalore has contracted OPS India to supply the power conversion and system integration at the upcoming 3 MW solar PV project in Raichur, Karnataka. State-owned utility KPCL has selected BHEL, a major engineering and manufacturing company, to construct the new project.

BHEL is one of the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprises that operates in India’s energy and infrastructure sectors. The company provides services to India’s power, railway, telecommunication and transmission markets. It is currently estimated that 70% of power generated in India is produced by BHEL-manufactured equipment.

The Karnataka Government launched its solar technology program in 2009 with an aim to power 3900 villages to meet the energy of 5.0 million people. OPS India has had considerable involvement with Karnataka Government’s Solar Initiative. Karnataka’s first multi-megawatt pilot project, commissioned in 2009, utilizes OPS proprietary inverters.

This 3 MW grid connect project will begin construction in March 2010 with a completion date of June 2010. OPS will be supplying twelve units of 250 kW Grid Export Power Conditioners (GEC-250k).

Click here for more information on OPS Products.

Pine Bluff is Trinity Grammar School’s outdoor education campus in NSW. It is situated on the Abercrombie River some 75kms from Crookwell. The outdoor campus consists of various freestanding buildings including a lodge, dormitory buildings, cottages, classrooms, a shed and a storeroom. In the summer groups of students attend the campus and participate in camping, bush walking and other similar activities.

Being in a remote environment a standalone power system is required.  Around 2001, the site had a remote hybrid system installed. That system included 12 kW of solar panels designed to supply power to the facility during the day. The system also utilized a 210kWh battery bank along with a 50kVA inverter system.

OPS carried out a site assessment and found that the battery bank had exceeded its useful lifetime. Also, a number of other maintenance tasks were needed to bring the system back to a satisfactory level of performance. OPS was employed to upgrade the existing system. This included a complete system upgrade of the original inverter to a new DSP controlled hybrid power conditioner including a SCADA remote monitoring package. The aging battery bank was completely replaced with 40 x 6V, 875 Ah batteries, and an MPPT solar regulator was integrated into the DSP control to ensure maximum yield of the solar energy.

The system upgrade was carried out in October and November 2009. It is now fully operational in its self-managed “automatic” mode and has been contributing significant amounts of solar energy to the peak summer load of the facility.  The system does this with the assistance of the 2 diesel generators on site and these are also controlled by the HPC unit.

OPS India has recently completed the prestigious solar power project at Governor house, Raj Bhavan, in Kolkata, West Bengal. Raj Bhavan Kolkata is the country’s first Governors residence to switch to solar power generation. India’s President Pratibha inaugurated the solar power system in December 2009.

West Bengal’s Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi), The Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr. Farooq Abdullah, President Smt. Pratibha Patil and West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation MD Gon Chaudhuri joined together to turn on the solar power at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata. Dr. Farooq Abdullah also announced the governments allocation of Rs. One Crore ($220,000 USD) for all Governor houses in the country to introduce solar power generation.

Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi has been striving to build awareness of carbon emissions through green and energy efficient building initiatives. The introduction of solar power at Raj Bhavan is expected to reduce the buildings carbon emissions by 40%.  The first stage implementation of solar PV at Raj Bhavan is 10kW however by March 2010 a further 40kW will be added and connected to the grid. The final system will be about 110kW.

OPS India supplied the system design, products and power integration for the Raj Bhavan system.

“We will all pool our scientific, technical and managerial talents, with financial sources, to develop solar energy as a source of abundant energy to power our economy and to transform the lives of our people”
Dr. Manmohan Singh, PM India.

Optimal Power Solutions is excited to announce its standard product line of DSP-based power inverters for 2010. Highly reputed for their reliability and efficiency, OPS inverters have been used extensively across a range of applications, from remote micro-grids to megawatt-scale solar farms.

The OPS Product Range 2010 Brochure, now available through our website, details standard inverter models in the following product lines:

· Hybrid Power Conditioners (HPC product line)

An integrated power conversion and management solution for off-grid applications. 7.5kW to 250kW.

· Grid Support Conditioners (GSC product line)

Designed as a distributed generation system for grid connected applications with unreliable utility supply. 7.5kW to 250kW.

· Grid Export Conditioners (GEC product line)

A unique grid connect inverter featuring fast and efficient MPPT. 7.5kW to 500kW.

The OPS Product Range 2010 Brochure is now available through the download section of our website. For sales enquiries, please contact your closest OPS office or email info@optimal-power-solutions.com

Click the above image to download The OPS Product Range 2010 Brochure

Optimal Power Solutions announces the appointment of Debabrata (Deb) Ghosh as Chief Operating Officer for the global group. Deb has ten years experience in management and technical roles across a number of high tech industries.

Before joining OPS, Mr. Ghosh was a Market Manager for High Precision Slicing in Electronic and Photovoltaic materials at Saint-Gobain Corporation, the world’s largest provider of abrasive products. He has held several product management positions at Applied Materials, Inc. and Axcelis Technologies, Inc., covering a wide range of offerings including PVD, Electroplating, Spares, Services and Intellectual Property. He began his career at the Indian Space Research Organization and has also worked for Tata Consulting Engineers in the Special Projects Division.

Mr. Ghosh earned his Bachelors degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in its Founding Class. Mr. Ghosh has been named as an inventor in 5 US patents related to semiconductor processing and RFID technology.

India’s largest pilot project of solar PV grid-connect is now online and a huge success!

OPS India (Optimal Power Synergy India) is in the final stages of its 3 megawatt grid connect project in Karnataka, India. OPS India has supplied the 3 megawatt project with all power conversion equipment and system integration. Whilst two thirds of the project is now fully operation and online, the final commissioning is set to occur in the next week.

This project will supply 3MW during daytime (11am to 5pm) to the state grid which will enable greater power capacity to meet the irrigation power supply demand. This pilot project is expected to facilitate future planned projects in the areas of Shikaripur taluk in Shimoga district and in Itnal village in Chikodi talu of Belgaum district. The Karnataka government is planning to launch a solar technology programme to over 3900 villages, estimated to meet the energy needs of 5.0 million people.

India will soon launch an ambitious plan to boost its solar power generation from 3 MW to 20,000 MW by 2022. The policy framework, known in official circles as “the National Solar Mission,” will address the high cost of manufacturing solar panels as well as the currently high price of solar power (in comparison to conventional coal power stations).

For more Flickr photos of this project please follow the photo links below.

Optimal Power Solutions is negotiating its first project application in South East Asia of our newly developed product, the Macro Hybrid Power Conditioner.

The Macro HPC is an energy optimized large-scale hybrid system. It offers high power renewable energy connected to an automated multiple engine control system (MGCS).  It has a facility to schedule specialized loads through the use of a Station Control Module (SCM).

The MGCS synchronizes various generator sets to operate at peak capacity in parallel, whilst the SCM communicates with the power producing components of the renewable energy station and the Hybrid Inverter Module.

The SCM also controls the Inverter Module at the external PV farm to ensure that all PV power being exported is managed in the event that the battery bank is fully charged and the village load is being met at the time. Controllable loads can be initiated to ensure no excess renewable energy is wasted.

The first application of this newly designed OPS product will be a 1MW power plant in East Malaysia. The Macro HPC platform provides for a scaleable capacity of up to 10MW, in solar photovoltaic increments of 100kW or 250kW.

Optimal Power Solutions envisages a high take-up in future of the Macro HPC in the following applications:

• Remote & Island Village Communities
• Large-Scale Communications Towers
• Health-Care Facilities
• Governmental & Educational Institutions
• Remote Infrastructure
• Off-Grid Airports