Transmission and distribution network manager Luma Energy has connected the 90MW Ciro 1 solar PV project to the Puerto Rican grid.
Located in the southern municipality of Salinas, the project has been developed by Ciro Energy Group and is part of a wider solar PV portfolio being developed in Puerto Rico. The interconnection of the 90MW solar PV plant also marks the first utility-scale solar PV project to do so in nearly a decade, according to local news outlet El Nuevo Día.
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The project includes 260,000 solar panels and is paired with a 51.5MW/206MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the project was carried out by DEPCOM Power.
According to Luma, the project also involved the construction of a new substation that incorporates faster response to outages, improves system stability and strengthens service reliability for customers.
Luma also highlighted that the project represents a key step in the working relationship between the service provider and private developers in Puerto Rico. More renewable energy projects are forecast to be connected to the grid.
In a second phase, Clean Flexible Energy is planning to add a further 220MW of renewable energy, while in a third phase, two other solar-plus-storage projects developed by Ciro Energy Group—Ciro 2 and Guayama—will be added to the grid. In total, Luma said these phases would add 420MW of renewable energy to Puerto Rico’s grid.
“This is just the beginning of a new stage for our electric grid: smarter, more resilient and ready for the future. The integration of these renewable energy sources demonstrates what we can achieve when the public and private sectors work together,” said Pedro Meléndez, chief officer of capital programmes and grid transformation at Luma.
Mélendez added that the diversification in generation will allow the system to operate more efficiently and sustainably.
The Caribbean island is more known for its distributed generation solar PV and its residential market, which has been praised as an energy transition success story (subscription required). Interest in solar-plus-storage virtual power plants to help alleviate grid challenges has also been on the rise in Puerto Rico.
