St. Joseph Solar, a 20-MW utility owned and operated solar facility, specified real-time power plant curtailment and power factor controls, multi-level inverter monitoring, tracker integration, weather stations monitoring and RTU data concentration – all controlled by the myPV IQ Grid Support power plant control (PPC) solution. This type of tightly coupled control system is not new to the utility sector for traditional fossil fuel power generation. For renewables, however, it is typically reserved for much larger transmission-level generators (>50 MW). Cost, complexity and prohibitive lead-times are typical barriers for smaller distribution projects.
Infrastructure & Energy Alternatives (IEA), a global developer of renewables, enlisted Solar Operations Solutions’ (Solar-Ops) myPV line of modular interconnection, weather station, networking, monitoring and control products to fulfill the project’s technical and budgetary requirements.
“Traditional switchgear and SCADA solutions are made-to-order per project — making them expensive to develop and support. Delivery takes longer because they are engineered from scratch. In contrast, the myPV brand is designed to serve a broad range of projects using standardized, documented and supportable products. This approach allows the myPV solutions to provide utility-class integration and control features to smaller renewable projects in a much shorter timeframe and at a project-appropriate price,” said Brad Micallef, managing director of Solar-Ops.
Through a simple ordering process, the modular myPV solutions were specified to address St. Joseph Solar’s specific and complex set of needs. The pre-configured products arrived ready to operate – providing instant visibility of the entire site upon initial energization and expediting the commissioning timeline.
“For many of our customers, the idea of having reliable, high-resolution data from the earliest commissioning steps to final capacity testing is game-changing. Intelligent commissioning simplifies troubleshooting for equipment manufacturers, engineers and project managers. We can complete the whole process faster and our customers are able to transition to commercial operation with a high degree of confidence.”
