Trend for microgrids in Spain – cost-effective, high quality installation of Fronius and Victron in Algerri

10/24/2016 | Print view

Matthijs Vader, Managing Director at Victron Energy checks the Color Control Display of the system. - © H.C.Neidlein — © H.C.Neidlein

Matthijs Vader, Managing Director at Victron Energy checks the Color Control Display of the system.

Fronius and Victron Energy realized a cost-effective PV microgrid in Algerri in the Spanish province of Lleida. A remote farm saves around 20,000 Euro yearly of diesel and 90,000 Euro of grid connection costs. pv Europe could join a field trip last Friday.

The microgrid system reaches LCOE of around 16 Cents/kWh according to Martin Hackl, head of division solar energy at Fronius International. It powers the energy consumption of an off-grid pig breeding farm of cereal produces CETOSA with around 5,000 piglets (feeding machines, ventilation etc.). The next grid connection point is over one kilometer away.

Sophisticated system for optimum power supply

The system consists of an 82 kW PV installation, three Fronius Symo 20.0 3M inverters, six Victron Quattro inverter chargers 48/10.000/140-100/100 230 50 A, four Victron Blue Solar 150/85 A charge controllers, a storage unit of two 1550 Ah C5 GNB lead batteries and a 60 kVA diesel generator as a backup. Goal is to minimize the use of the diesel generator. Last month it did not have to run at all. If the batteries are fully loaded, as this sunny Friday afternoon, the power is automatically reduced by the inverter charges and the inverters. “Our inverters have a special setup for this purpose, with various functions to ensure stable microgrid operation”, Francisco Heredia, Technical Advisor at Fronius Spain said. In addition to the frequency droop characteristic, voltage-dependent power reduction and reactive power regulation functions can be activated.

Remote Monitoring Portal

CETOSA also benefits from the effective system monitoring: the operator can use the Victron Remote Monitoring Portal (VRM) to view live values, while the Fronius Solar.web online portal provides a comprehensive range of display and analysis functions for alle PV system data. The Color Control Display (CCGX) from Victron acts as a data aggregator between the Fronius Datamanager and the Victron inverter/charger.

Impressive installation quality

Matthijs Vader, Managing Director at Victron Energy was quite impressed by the high installation quality of the system with neatly laid cables, even using different colours and a separate room for the storage unit. Local installer was Bellcaire Electric. Since 2015 Victron and Fronius cooperate. In many regions, they have joint sales partners. Installers are trained separately for both product lines. The installers network of Fronius in Spain and Portugal grew impressively within the last years and includes 275 businesses currently.

Due to high grid-connection costs or lack of physical grid capacity a growing number of remote Spanish farms bank on microgrids, Rainer Sattlberger, CEO of Fronius Spain reported. This year Fronius in cooperation with Victron could realize already 40 microgrid installations with a total of two MW. (HCN)