Schneider Electric will provide a 1MWh energy storage system to be paired with a PV system from Duke Energy-backed REC Solar in the latest project to show how renewables-integrated microgrids can work.
France-headquartered Schneider launched EcoBlade, a scalable lithium ion battery-based storage system, just before the end of last year. The company said at the time that it is targeting a price of less than US$500 per kilowatt-hour.
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EcoBlade will be used at the microgrid installation, which is being deployed at Schneider Electric’s North American HQ, the Boston One campus. It will pair the 1MWh of EcoBlade storage with 400kW of PV, which was installed by REC Solar, also utilising Schneider inverters.
The installation will include carport and rooftop mounted PV modules, around 1,600 in total. The microgrid could save Schneider 5% of its campus electricity costs, generating 560,000kWh a year, and adding resiliency from blackouts. The microgrid is linked together with Schneider’s own software.
Duke Energy also has its own microgrid test bed, while an advanced microgrid built by Schneider and S&C Electric for Texas utility Oncor connecting together four interlinked smaller grids was completed in the first quarter of last year. That project was something of a demonstration of the technology and was opened up to visitors for educational tours.