How to mitigate risk and overcome challenges of medium voltage equipment in small-scale utility projects

Network conditions have impacted the large-scale solar industry around Australia and have caused significant delays in the connection approval process for a large number of projects. As a result, more and more investors in Australia are seeing a surge of small-scale utility solar, particularly around the 5 MW mark which can fly under the radar of the electricity network’s congestion woes.

However, most players in the small-scale utility sector with limited experience in dealing with large central inverters and medium voltage (MV) to high voltage (HV) equipment are marking these solutions as something that increases the risk profile of the entire project which can in some cases end up reflected in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) figures.

By having a suitably designed decentralised integrated system, you can improve the project’s risk profile and remove the engineering pressure from your contractors.

The award-winning three-phase FIMER PVS-175/185 string inverter has the largest high-power density within the 1500 Vdc segment, delivers up to 185 kVA at 800 Vac and can achieve an ultra-high DC/AC ratio of 1.4.

The PVS-175/185 is ideal for small, medium and large-scale free-field ground-mounted solar installations from 800 kVA to 6.7 MVA per station.

The inverter is equipped with 12 MPPT and provides maximum PV plant design flexibility and enables increasing yields also in case of complex installations.

With quick and easy installation, thanks to plug and play connectors and the potential to use the existing PV module mounting systems to install the inverters, you can achieve significant savings in installation time, on-site preparation and hire of plant costs.

Standard wireless access from any mobile device makes the configuration of inverter and plant easier and faster. Monitoring your assets is made easy, as every inverter is capable of connecting to the free Aurora Vision cloud platform.

FIMER has designed this inverter to offer not only lower cost/watt but also other system benefits that will further contribute to the reduction of the overall system cost.

The FIMER PVS-175-MVCS solution.

The PVS-175-MVCS (Medium Voltage Compact Skid) is an integrated product specifically engineered for decentralised solar plants. The solution allows to connect up to 36 inverters for a maximum power of 6.7 MVA.

The MVCS includes an optimised MV oil-immersed transformer, MV gas-insulated switchgear, all the necessary low voltage protections and connections to attach the solar array and a set of available auxiliary services with independent auxiliary power and can fit within a 20ft container.

With many installations already around the world, this solution can offer reduced CAPEX with its ultra-high-power density and reduced OPEX through fast installation and easy configuration and asset management.

For more information or to discuss any specific project details, please contact Aaron Zadeh from FIMER Australia by email aaron.zadeh@fimer.com, or phone 0428 647 697.

Aaron Zadeh is a CEC accredited solar design engineer with more than 15 years of experience in product management, project realisation, sales and business development in the solar industry across Europe, UK, the Middle East and Australia.

Aaron is responsible for large scale solar and energy storage projects and EV chargers in Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he worked on the AGL’s Virtual Power Plant project in South Australia.

* 800 kVA with PVS-100-TL inverter. Minimum skid size with PVS-175 is 1850 kVA.

Main image caption: FIMER’s PVS 175 has recently been installed as part of a 4 MW project for a food and beverage manufacturer in Victoria.