Ingeteam began the year 2016 by commissioning the first hybrid plant in Brazil to be connected to the public grid, combining PV energy and battery storage.

The power generated by the rooftop PV panels (90 kWp) is stored in a sodium battery bank (276 kWh) controlled by the Ingeteam battery inverter. The whole system is managed by the Battery System Controller developed by InGrid.

The grid-tied system incorporates a battery inverter to operate in self-consumption mode. Therefore, the priority is to keep the batteries charged with the energy sourced from the PV plant. In this way, during a grid outage, the system can move to off-grid mode in less than 20 milliseconds, using the batteries to provide the necessary power.

Although this plant, located at the headquarters of the Brazilian army in Brasilia, is the first of its kind in Brazil, the collaboration between the companies taking part in this project is expected to continue in the near future, in remote areas with no grid access or in situations with a weak or unstable power supply.

In addition to the commissioning conducted by an Ingeteam engineer shortly before Christmas, Ingeteam also supplied an INGECON SUN STORAGE 125 kW three-phase battery inverter for this project.

This is the second project in which this new battery inverter is installed, as it was launched into the market by the end of 2015. This equipment is responsible for the generation and management of an alternating current (AC) network, thereby guaranteeing the correct balance between generation, consumption and energy storage. Moreover, this INGECON SUN STORAGE inverter can operate in both stand-alone or grid-connected modes, allowing different strategies such as self-consumption, back-up or grid support.

This inverter is available with an AC power ranging from 60 to 250 kW.

Furthermore, the Ingeteam supply for this plant also included five INGECON SUN 3Play PV string inverters.