Farm Solution
This project was applied to an agricultural farm in California, USA, which wanted to optimize the efficiency of its power usage by integrating an energy storage system, with a particular focus on photovoltaic (PV) self-generation and emergency back-up power needs, while also designing the system to be compatible with diesel generators given the farm's geographic location and the nature of its energy needs.
Project Overview
Available Only Through Renon Power
Project Location
Harnessing California's Abundant Solar Resources
The location is set in the sunny region of California,
USA, which is rich in solar energy resources,
but the grid infrastructure may be relatively weak,
especially in extreme weather conditions,
with the risk of unstable power supply.
Energy Storage System Specifications
Advanced Energy Storage Technology for Long-Term Agricultural Needs
Total Capacity: 360kWh, utilizing high-safety lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries,
offering a reliable long-term energy storage solution designed specifically for agricultural environments.
Peak Power: 30kW, ensuring uninterrupted operation of critical farm equipment such as irrigation systems and refrigeration units,
enhancing agricultural productivity.
PV Self-Consumption Function
Smart PV Management for Max. Solar Utilization
Smart Energy Management: The integrated Energy Management System (EMS) intelligently schedules photovoltaic power and battery energy based on solar radiation and electricity demand, prioritizing the use of renewable solar energy and optimizing energy efficiency.
Bidirectional Inverter: The high-efficiency bidirectional inverter allows for direct use or storage of photovoltaic power, ensuring round-the-clock power supply regardless of weather conditions.
Emergency Backup Power and Diesel Generator Integration
Seamless Emergency Response for Uninterrupted Power Supply
Seamless Switching: The automatic transfer system ensures that the diesel generator instantly takes over during grid outages or insufficient photovoltaic generation, maintaining continuous power supply to the farm.
Smart Charging Control: During diesel generator operation, the system intelligently charges the battery, ensuring adequate power for the next grid outage or solar shortfall.
Load Management: Dynamically adjusts non-critical loads to minimize energy wastage, prioritizing the operation of essential equipment during power shortages.
System Safety and Monitoring
Comprehensive Safety Protection and Real-Time Monitoring
Safety Protection: Multiple protection measures prevent system overload, short circuit, or overheating, ensuring safe operation even in harsh weather conditions.
Remote Monitoring: Through a cloud platform, farm managers can monitor the system s status in real-time, including battery health, remaining energy, and power usage, allowing for timely decision-making.
Overall Objective
The Ideal Power Solution for Sustainable Agriculture
This energy storage system is designed to provide a sustainable, flexible, and cost-effective power solution for farms, significantly reducing reliance on the traditional grid, lowering operating costs, and enhancing farm resilience to natural disasters and power outages. It is the optimal choice for modern farms committed to green development and efficiency improvement.
Core Component Selection
Renon Power Specialization
Battery System Selection
Selection: 6 x ECube 60AP batteries in parallel.
Rationale: The total energy storage requirement is 360kWh. In order to achieve redundancy and flexibility in parallel operation, we chose a parallel configuration of six ECube 60AP batteries. This not only meets the energy storage requirements, but also provides better system stability and maintainability.
Benefits: The parallel solution allows individual batteries to be connected in parallel.
Advantage: The parallel solution allows individual battery modules to be maintained or replaced independently without affecting the operation of the entire system, while providing higher energy density and discharge efficiency.
PCS (Power Conversion System) Power Configuration
Selection: 30kW PCS.
Rationale: Based on the farm s average peak power demand and emergency back-up requirements, the 30kW PCS power configuration ensures that the system provides sufficient power output when needed, while efficiently storing excess power in the batteries in the event of a surplus of PV power.
Advantage: The optimized PCS power configuration avoids over-investment while ensuring efficient system operation and a long service life.
PV System Power Configuration
Selection: 90kW PV system based on 5 hours of effective power generation per day.
Rationale: Based on the light conditions in the Midwest, we expect about 5 hours of effective sunlight per day. Therefore, a 90kW PV system would be able to generate enough power during these hours to meet the farm s power needs for most of the day.
Benefits: This configuration ensures that the PV system can generate more power than the farm needs immediately when there is sufficient sunlight, creating conditions for battery storage and reducing dependence on the grid.
Battery Pack and PCS Configuration: The system utilizes a 360kWh total capacity lithium-ion battery pack combined with a 30kW PCS (Power Conversion System) to ensure efficient energy storage and conversion.
Intelligent EMS Integration: The integrated EMS (Energy Management System) optimizes energy scheduling and achieves intelligent switching between PV, battery and diesel generator.
Advanced Thermal Management
Battery Thermal Management: The battery pack is equipped with a dedicated air conditioning system and a reasonable air duct design to effectively dissipate heat and ensure that the battery operates at a suitable temperature, prolonging the battery s life and improving the stability of the system.
Fire Safety Design
Smoke Detection: The system has a built-in smoke detector, which can respond quickly at the early stage of fire and issue an alarm in time.
Aerosol fire extinguisher: Aerosol fire extinguishing device is deployed, which can rapidly release the extinguishing agent and isolate the oxygen in the enclosed space to realize efficient fire extinguishing.
System Advantages
Intelligent and Remote Monitoring
Intelligent Management: Intelligent energy management and remote monitoring platform facilitates farm managers to grasp the system status in real time and optimize operation and maintenance strategies.
Fault Alert: Intelligent diagnostic tools simplify troubleshooting, improve system availability, and reduce maintenance costs.
High Reliability
Power continuity: ATS STS ensures continuous and stable power supply under all circumstances.
Thermal Management: Accurate thermal management strategy prevents overheating of batteries and improves overall system reliability.
Significant Economic Benefits
Electricity savings: Self-generation and self-consumption of photovoltaic combined with the energy storage system significantly reduces the farm s electricity bill.
Intelligent scheduling: Reduces unnecessary diesel generator operation, saves fuel costs and lowers operating costs.
