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SMA Solar Technology AG: SMA Supplies System Technology for World's Largest PV-Diesel Hybrid Power Plant

DGAP-News: SMA Solar Technology AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous
SMA Solar Technology AG: SMA Supplies System Technology for World's
Largest PV-Diesel Hybrid Power Plant

14.08.2014 / 15:19

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SMA Solar Technology AG - Corporate News

SMA Supplies System Technology for World's Largest PV-Diesel Hybrid Power
Plant with Battery Storage System

Niestetal/Cobija, August 14, 2014-The world's largest PV-diesel hybrid
power plant with battery storage system is currently being built in the
Bolivian province of Pando. SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) is not only
supplying photovoltaic inverters for this project, but is also providing an
SMA Fuel Save Controller for demand-driven control of solar power feed-in,
as well as four newly developed inverters for large-scale battery storage
systems that use lithium-ion technology.

This PV-diesel hybrid power plant with battery storage system and an output
of approximately 5 MW is designed to generate enough clean solar power to
cover about half of the energy demand in the provincial capital of Cobija
and neighboring towns in northern Bolivia. The residents and companies of
this area consume about 37 GWh of energy per year-and at a rate that is
only increasing. Since the region is not connected to the public utility
grid, power for the local grid has been produced exclusively with diesel
generators. SMA is supplying six Sunny Central 800CP-XT inverters, four
Sunny Central Storage 630 battery inverters and an SMA Fuel Save Controller
as the central component of the hybrid system. The general contractor (EPC)
for the project is Isotron S.A.U. (ISASTUR Group). The Bolivian electric
utility company ENDE (Empresa Nacional de Electricidad) owns the power
plant while the company Eléctrica Guarachi S.A. is tasked with project
management.

Volker Wachenfeld, Senior Vice President Off-Grid & Storage at SMA, is
excited about the pioneering use of the SMA Fuel Save Solution in this
PV-diesel hybrid power plant, which will start supplying solar power by the
end of the year. "Thanks to our intelligent control engineering, we are
able to integrate even large shares of solar power into diesel-powered
grids. This reduces operating costs and CO2 emissions as well as dependence
on diesel fuel. The SMA Fuel Save Solution developed to meet this
technological challenge has besides the inverters the SMA Fuel Save
Controller as its core component. It acts as a demand-driven controller of