Category — News

This week at Intersolar 2011 (Mumbai), OPS together with OPS India will release the latest in transformer-less Grid Export power conditioning technology, The GEC-TL Series along with the megawatt-scale containerised power module, The Sun Station.

We invite you to visit our booth at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) Hall 1 during 14th to 16th December. Our stall will showcase our current and emerging product technology of power conversion and system integration for renewable power systems.

For attendees of the Conference, feel free to drop in on Wednesday 14th at 2pm to see Chief Technology Officer Mr Ashok Prakash and General Manager Mr Sunil Kumar discuss the Optimal Power Solutions power electronics and inverter systems.

To view more images of this project, please click on one of the images below or visit the InterSolar Mumbai page at our Flickr website here.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has been awarded by Lakshadweep Electricity Department a major contract for installation for a 1.1 MWp Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) Power Plants at Lakshadweep Island, along with the refurbishment of existing installations totalling 850 kWp. A total of ten islands will be involved in this 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.

BHEL has contracted OPS India to provide new power electronics equipment as well as to augment and refurbish the SPV Power Plants. OPSI will supply our proprietary technology Power Conditioning Units with SCADA systems & MPPT charge controllers to BHEL for Lakshadweep.

The scope of work for OPS India includes total project work for installation, system integration, commissioning and O & M of the SPV plants for a period of 5 years.

OPS India will also provide a remote monitoring system that will be integrate the individual inverters on the respective Islands. This will enable remote accessibility with special control for individual inverters as well as the integrated system. Our web based monitoring and control system is capable of data acquisition through both local and remote access points.

To view more images of this project, please click on one of the images below or visit the Lakshadweep Project page at our Flickr website here.

Optimal Power Solutions has recently completed upgrades to its software control at a privately-held island hybrid system in the Bahamas. OPS made various improvements in order to better support the islands unforeseen peak loads.

This included a new facility that enables separate diesel generators to charge a single battery bank simultaneously via the HPC power conditioning units. In addition, OPS also provided enhancements to its SCADA remote management software and improvements to the integration of the eight wind turbines.

We previously covered this project in an earlier article, Caribbean island lights up with OPS renewable energy technology.

Caribbean Project Photo Slideshow

In June 2010 the City of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Philippines formed a technical partnership with Optimal Power Solutions in order to address the city’s power shortage, currently estimated at 5 to 10 MW.

An ongoing and significant issue has been the provision of sustainable energy for Puerto Princesa. At present, diesel-powered gensets provide a capacity of 30 MW of power to the inhabitants of Puerto Princesa. OPS and the City Council plan to design and implement renewable energy sources to generate additional power supply, reduce diesel fuel consumption and promote a viable and sustainable energy future. It is envisaged that new renewable sources of up to 10 MW capacity will be integrated over successive phases. This renewable capacity will prioritise the export of photovoltaic power into the grid to better support and lower use of the current diesel generators. Phase One of 1 MW capacity shall be installed in 2011 progressing up to 2MW, 5MW and finally 10 MW providing for future load growth of the City.

The systems will combine solar photovoltaics, OPS proprietary inverter control technology, battery storage and diesel engines configured for 24-hour continuous power supply. OPS will provide the technical design, product technology, delivery, installation and service and maintenance of these new renewable services. The inverter technology will employ specially developed SCADA software for real time control management of the photovoltaic/diesel systems. This proprietary SCADA is currently in use in multi-megawatt grid-connect projects in India and has proven highly invaluable for real-time, remote monitoring of power generation and general system trends.

Puerto Princesa, Palawan: Background Context

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. Palawan is widely considered as one of the most important areas of biodiversity and conservation in the Philippines due to the outstanding environmental landmarks including spectacular limestone cliff formations, immense reefs teaming with marine life and significant mangroves. Puerto Princesa also contains an environmentally significant tidal underground river. Positioned in the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP), this unique natural phenomena was listed as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site in 1999. The PPSRNP is considered one of few examples in the Philippines whereby a concerted effort has been made to protect and manage the natural area.

The Puerto Princesa City Council is considered to be a leader of sustainable policies and is widely acknowledged as the cleanest and greenest amongst local Philippine governments. As a result, the PPSRPN and surrounding areas of Puerto Princesa are a source of national pride and a key element in the identity of the Philippine people. OPS looks forward to the ongoing technical involvement in regard to the development of sustainable energy and technology trends in the greater region of Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

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.

The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 was an annular eclipse of the Sun which NASA figures show had a magnitude of 0.9190.  This eclipse is unique in that it will have the longest duration of this millennium, a total of 11 minutes and 8 seconds. It reached its greatest effect as it passed over the Indian Ocean. Whilst most countries would have only observed a partial eclipse, many inhabitants of India were lucky to have the full eclipse highly visible.

Parts of India would have witnessed the eclipse duration of around 10 minutes and 24 seconds. The next annular solar eclipse with such a long duration is not expected until December 23, 3043.

OPS India exported this live solar insolation graph from the recently commissioned 1 MW solar photovoltaic grid connect system in Jamuria, West Bengal. The graph shows the reduction in solar insolation and associated drop in the systems exported power. This can be seen in the graph from 12.40pm to 3.00pm with the eclipse peaking at 2.15pm.

Below is a Video of the Eclipse over Varanasi, India, as filmed by the BBC.

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

NEW DELHI: In a step forward, the Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change got an in-principle nod from the PM Manmohan Singh, with a target of 20,000MW (20GW) solar power generated by 2020 being accepted.

The Solar Mission is one of the seven missions proposed under the National Action Plan on Climate Change which was unveiled last year, promising India’s efforts to tackle climate change at the domestic level. The Solar Mission provides a detailed road map demonstrative of India’s serious intent to become a global leader in Solar Power within the next two decades.

The plan covers both grid and off-grid solar energy generation and distribution. In the first stage, the draft envisages generating 1-1.5 GW of solar power by 2012, 6-7 GW by 2017 and 20 GW (installed) by 2020. It calls for using 40-50 million sq metres of surface area in domestic, industrial and commercial areas.

The government aims to achieve it by providing incentives to cut the cost of development and deployment of solar panels. The aim is bring down the cost of solar energy from Rs15 to Rs4-5/ kWh from Rs3.5kWh base 2009 and achieve parity with coal by 2030 (Rs2kWh). The plan is expected to help offer lighting to 3 million households by 2012.

Parliamentary members stated that “While keeping an ‘ambitious’ target the solar mission should be built within an ‘enabling framework’ emerging from international negotiations, It would be important to demand technological and financial support from the international community under the UN negotiations, for such a huge target for clean energies due to the uncertainty of the costs.”

The plan calls for setting up a statutory solar authority under the ministry of new & renewable energy. It will have three verticals _ finance, technology & tariff, special project. The body will particularly focus on installation of solar collectors in hospitals, hotels and government buildings.

‘‘The solar mission can be India’s response to the global climate change logjam. It will make India’s position stronger in the negotiations. If India can do so much unilaterally, imagine what India can achieve if financing and clean technology support from rich countries come through. It’s the right answer at the opportune time,’’ says Siddharth Pathak, climate & energy campaigner, Greenpeace India.

The solar energy industry in India has undoubtedly gained momentum and should be able to keep pace with the government’s aim of achieving 10% of the country’s total electricity requirements by 2012. India already possesses a balanced eco-system for the PV industry, a high-tech manufacturing base and skilled labour sufficient to make it a booming industry. Annual PV production has already reached over 300 MW, with about 85% being exported.

Key facts about India’s 20GW Solar Power plans

The $19 billion “National Solar Mission” plan spread over 30 years aims to scale up solar power generation from nothing at present to 20 GW by 2020. The plan has a “near term” target of 100 megawatts, and 100 GW by 2030, or 10-12 percent of total power generation capacity estimated for that year.

Once implemented, the project will ensure large-scale deployment of solar generated power for both grid connected as well as distributed and decentralized off-grid provision of commercial energy services.

India says it could cut about 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions with its new solar plan. An estimated 20 million solar lights are estimated to save 1 billion litres of kerosene per annum by 2020.
Solar-powered equipment and applications will be mandatory for hospitals, hotels and government buildings, and villages and small towns will be encouraged with micro financing.

The plan also outlines a system of paying households for any surplus power from solar panels fed back into the grid. The target would be to provide access to lighting for 3 million households by 2012.

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