First European experience

First European experience in the operation of a commercial photovoltaic plant with batteries

GENERAL INFORMATION

  • Location: Photovoltaic plant at Tudela (Navarra, Spain).
  • Duration: 1/04/2010 - 31/03/2013.
  • Participants: ACCIONA, ACCIONA Windpower, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Ikerlan, IIT.
  • Additional information: ILIS is a program that comes under the EU program Eurogia+, in support of clean energy technologies. It also receives support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology and the Government of Navarra.

CONTENT AND ACTIVITIES

  • The project was carried out in the photovoltaic solar plant of ACCIONA in Tudela (Navarra). Through ILIS, the company wished to valorize all the experience gained in the construction and operation of this kind of installation in order to improve its performance.
  • A key element in the project was the development of a new centralized management and control system for the plant – carried out by ACCIONA – taking into account parameters such as weather forecasts, grid requirements and the previous performance of the plant and the set of batteries. It also provided real-time information to the system operator, thus optimizing its integration into the electric power system.
  • Another new feature of the ILIS project is the use of latest-generation batteries. The system provides the energy necessary to manage the installation, avoiding quick power fluctuations due to environmental factors such as cloud cover, and facilitates the primary and secondary regulation of the power grid as a help to ensuring the stability of the system.
  • The company Saft has developed this system with latest-generation batteries (ion-lithium), which have a long life, high efficiency, zero maintenance and facilitate the measurement of the load and other operational parameters. The whole 1.1 MW battery system is containerized, which means it can easily be scaled up for future applications.

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