APPLICATION NOTE Renewable energy is gaining increased Among the parameters which considerably popularity and interest, expressed both in affect and reduce profitability and revenue are: government financing and in investments from 1. Inferior power quality introduced by the the private sector. Of the incentives driving this grid/utility (e.g. harmonics) interest, one emerges from financial needs, 2. Erroneous utility readings influenced by today's unstable prices of fossil 3. Failure of equipment fuel. This drives the public and private sectors 4. Failure to utilize systems at maximum in search of alternative, reliable and affordable capacity energy sources. The other being environmental With over 30 years' experience in power awareness, which slowly but surely has engineering in the different fields of energy become a cause for successful lobbying in metering and power quality SATEC has risen to government, politics and finance. the challenge of designing tailor-made Two of the prominent methods for generation solutions for renewable energy applications. of electricity in methods referred to as Implementing its advanced power meters and renewable energy are solar power and wind power quality analyzers, SATEC is a supplier of energy, harvested by wind turbines. solutions for renewable energy projects such The design of such systems, which are as the Siemens GAMESA (Spain) wind turbines ultimately geared towards the income made and the Sinovel (China) wind turbines and for off the energy generated and sold, often the Perovo solar park (the Ukraine), EDF neglects, or overlooks, important aspects (Electricity de France), IEC (Israel Electric which help determine the ROI and, more Corporation) and Suzlon. importantly, the general profitability of these The SATEC system includes several systems. functionalities, corresponding with the challenges mentioned. Profit-effective management of renewable energy // Copyright © 2018 SATEC Ltd. Page 1 of 5 // November 2018 Independent and Accurate system by detecting and singling out energy Metering System leaks along the internal grid. This comes as opposed to methods at which Utilities often process erroneous calculations, partial metering results in reliance on "virtual" overcharging for miscalculated imported calculated meters which won't necessarily energy and miscalculating energy exported to detect or locate energy leaks. the grid, resulting in partial crediting. Placing at the connection to the grid a high-accuracy (Class 0.2S), reliable, non-biased, revenue- Power Quality grade meter guarantees supervision over the Positioning at the grid connection a SATEC utility's energy billing and purchase. Power Quality Analyzer, combined with the Likewise, accurate metering has a direct impact functionality of a revenue grade meter, such as on revenue: In financial terms, for a 1000 kVA the EM720/PM180, ensures a triple upshot: transformer, operating at 80% load, 0.9 PF, 1. Power Quality Analyzer: for detection of with electricity purchase at a typical USD upstream harmonics and other power 0.15/kWh, the resulting difference between quality problems (outages, sags, swells the allowed error for a Class 0.5 meter and a etc.) which harm equipment and hamper Class 0.5S reading using SATEC HACS (High production. Accuracy Current Sensors) would translate to 2. "Check meter" functionality against utility USD 9,461 annually (!) (for details, please refer financial energy balance, as discussed to SATEC's Accuracy Class application note). above. Positioning energy meters at as many as 3. Internal energy balance checkpoint, as possible junctions of energy production discussed above. (individual wind turbines or grouped PV cells; Improved System Reliability via real-time see diagram) enables performing a monitoring of operational parameters comprehensive energy balance for the whole Profit-effective management of renewable energy // Copyright © 2018 SATEC Ltd. Page 2 of 5 // November 2018 Integrated into an EMS (ExpertPowerTM, inverter shutdown, and in case of downstream below), the metering points mentioned allow harmonics, flagging inverters which are for real-time monitoring of voltage and current malfunctioning. measurements and accordingly, real-time Positioning a power quality analyzer at the grid monitoring of system capacity. connection can also allow a producer to claim This pervasive monitoring is also the way to compensation from the utility for loss of ensure operational reliability: production due to such shutdowns of inverters, imposed by irregular grid frequency or other The implementation of photovoltaic cells power quality issues. delivering DC power normally requires the installation of AC inverters at a certain ratio dictated by the inverter's rating. Inverters are System Accuracy designed to work above a certain voltage, The inverters mentioned, although equipped under which they will shut down. Likewise, if with basic functionalities of power metering, they sense that the utility's grid frequency is provide readings which are often far from even slightly out of sync – they will shut down. accurate, starting at 2% for ideal loads, running Positioning at each such inverter a SATEC through a typical 5% permissible error, EM133, communicating with the central reaching at times up to 50% permissible (!) ExpertPowerTM energy management system, error. The above data is non-biased and is ensures that alerts will be sent out in case of stated in the inverters' handbooks. Profit-effective management of renewable energy // Copyright © 2018 SATEC Ltd. Page 3 of 5 // November 2018 System Efficiency Real-time financial data Furthermore, A solid metering network The combined system (metering and EMS) ensures monitoring the real-time performance allows the monitoring of real-time data of a system vs. its optimal capacity which will regarding immediate and accumulative saving often be hampered by equipment in need of in energy, money and carbon emissions. maintenance, dirty solar cells and so forth. Exceptional Accuracy in Frequency Readings User Specified Information There is a reason for SATEC being implemented Control in all GAMESA hybrid parks. The nature of the ExpertPower is designed to be viewed and complicated integration of wind, solar and utilized by a variety of users with different battery-stored energy into the utility grid access levels. While some users might have full requires rigorous monitoring of readings access to full critical/operational data such as coming from all energy sources, and of the grid alerts regarding equipment malfunction, frequency at which the AC power is maintenance and system efficiency, other introduced. This monitoring requires a users may be restricted to designated standard of accuracy which delivers reading information, such as energy production. resolution down to 0.001 Hz. SATEC takes pride The system is modular and extremely flexible in owning a unique power quality analyzer – in its settings. the PM180 – which is a truly rare breed in answering to this requirement. ExpertPowerTM Energy Management System (EMS) Installation of all the above metering points and functionalities will not be complete without integration into a smart system, providing analysis and alerts. This is where ExpertPowerTM comes in. A product of years of development for users from an array of sectors, from power plants to distribution utilities, ExpertPowerTM is a browser operated platform for real-time data collection and analysis, for any energy system. Interoperable with equipment of any make it is adapted and well-used with renewable energy production as well. Profit-effective management of renewable energy // Copyright © 2018 SATEC Ltd. Page 4 of 5 // November 2018 Forecasting Energy Production Conclusion Monitoring system data enables predicted With profitability and ROI being decisive energy production based on system capacity, factors in justifying renewable energy projects efficiency and weather forecasting. Production any factors such as those described above forecasting is extremely important for energy must be addressed when designing and retail. integrating a SATEC control system which will promote your energy production facility to the level of a true profit center. Profit-effective management of renewable energy // Copyright © 2018 SATEC Ltd. Page 5 of 5 // November 2018 .