PG&E Demonstration Project Tests Smart Inverter Benefits, Electric Grid Impacts
July 18 2018 - 2:15PM
Business Wire
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today announced
interim findings from an ongoing Electric Program Investment Charge
(EPIC) project that aims to demonstrate the functionality of smart
inverters.
As more Californians power their lives with solar energy, energy
storage and electric vehicles, PG&E is looking to the smart
inverters that will be installed on those technologies to manage
their interaction with the grid in support of continued clean
energy growth.
“We have a long history of embracing innovation and new
technologies for the benefit of our customers and the communities
we serve. The smart inverters being installed on our customers’
solar and energy storage systems, paired with our investment in
grid operations systems and technology, show promise to facilitate
distribution system reliability and power quality in the
increasingly complex grid,” said Roy Kuga, vice president, Grid
Integration and Innovation, PG&E.
A standard inverter converts power from solar panels and
batteries from its native direct current (DC) into alternating
current (AC) which can be used on site or fed into the power grid.
A smart inverter is a more sophisticated version of an inverter
that makes autonomous decisions that can help maintain grid
stability, reliability and power quality. In the near future, smart
inverters will be required to have the capability to receive remote
operation instructions and communicate measurements and status.
Some solar installations already have smart inverters with these
advanced capabilities.
California’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) began requiring
smart inverters on all new solar interconnections starting
September 8, 2017, through the California Public Utility
Commission’s Rule 21 tariff. As smart inverter standards and
requirements continue to evolve, PG&E can use demonstration
projects like this one to explore how smart inverters on customers’
solar installations function and interact with the grid.
Completed Project Activities
PG&E recently published an interim report on project
activities and findings to date, along with planned next steps.
PG&E’s Grid Integration and Innovation group, which is
leading the project, has found that smart inverters can be
beneficial. As solar has become more ubiquitous in California over
the past decade, the grid has started to experience reliability and
power quality issues. Smart inverters have the potential to prevent
the solar systems from contributing to voltage fluctuations and
adverse impacts on protection systems due to reverse power flow.
The demonstration has also shown that more work and investments are
needed to standardize the technology and improve communications
reliability. The ongoing project will next test the capabilities of
smart inverters on a different type of electrical distribution
circuit with higher solar penetration.
PG&E believes that with additional investments that enable
grid planning and operations to achieve better utility monitoring,
visibility, and communication capabilities, smart inverters have
the potential to become an important tool in the integration of
clean energy into California’s electric grid.
Ongoing Project Activities
Working with Turlock-based JKB Energy, PG&E is testing smart
inverter capabilities on commercial-scale solar installations for
agricultural customers. These installations are all connected to
the same distribution line in Merced County, and this particular
circuit already has a high penetration of solar-generated
electricity and has experienced problems as a result of the amount
of solar currently installed. The project includes installing smart
inverters to prevent the inverter from contributing to voltage
issues, ensure greater electric reliability, and facilitate the
continued integration of additional solar. JKB Energy installed and
maintains the customer-owned solar generating stations.
“At JKB Energy, we place a heavy emphasis on paying close
attention to the details that can make or break a project. In
working with PG&E to install smart inverters for some of our
shared customers, we have the opportunity to enhance our customers’
experience with a solution that integrates more clean energy onto
the grid, ultimately resulting in greater safety, reliability, and
affordability for our customers,” said Bob Hansen, vice president
and chief operating officer, JKB Energy.
This project is funded by PG&E customers through EPIC - a
program that enables California investor-owned utilities to
demonstrate new and novel technologies and evaluate how they
support safety, reliability, and affordability objectives for the
benefit of their customers. To learn more about EPIC, visit
www.pge.com/epic.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.
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