Gridco Systems Deploys emPower™ Solution to Address Multiple Distribution Grid Applications at Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Greater Sudbury Hydro

WOBURN, Mass., Jan. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Gridco Systems, a leader in agile grid infrastructure solutions, today announced the successful results of field deployments of its emPower Solution with multiple North American utility partners. The industry's first and only end-to-end hardware and software system for dynamic, distributed and decoupled power control is being used in several key grid-side applications, including reliable integration of solar photovoltaics (PV) and other Distributed Energy Resources (DER), increased energy efficiency and peak demand reduction as part of CVR/VVO initiatives, and power quality assurance.

The solution provides a cost-effective and easy means to increase PV hosting capacity, expedite PV interconnections, and is capable of doubling energy efficiency and peak reduction savings. It is typically less than half the cost of business-as-usual approaches, such as reconductoring or asset replacement, and provides feeder- and system-wide benefits.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) chose to deploy and test several IPR-50s to help with integration of the growing number of rooftop PV systems. The IPR's dynamic and continuous voltage regulation under forward and reverse power flows enabled SMUD to maintain delivered voltage levels under a range of conditions.

The set-and-forget capability of the Gridco Systems IPR-50s, combined with their 25-year design life, allows for long-term maintenance-free operation. "As a municipal-owned utility, maintaining quality voltage levels is what our customers demand," said TJ Vargas, Advanced Technology Engineer on the project. "SMUD finds significant value in more visibility and control of power flows at the edge of the grid from our increasing amount of distributed and variable renewable generation sources," Vargas added.

Greater Sudbury Hydro also needed to more effectively integrate PV into their distribution grid and enhance the power quality delivered to customers. "We needed to ensure the reliable delivery of power within CSA limits, especially to customers with voltage-sensitive equipment, and the Gridco Systems IPR-50 helped us achieve this goal," said Brian McMillan, Vice-President Distribution Electrical Systems at Greater Sudbury Hydro. "We are also using the IPR to maintain near unity power factor and cancel voltage and current harmonics, which have been getting worse over time due to the large amounts of customer-connected non-linear loads and electronics-based power supplies."

"Gridco Systems is proud to be solving mission-critical power issues for its utility partners," said Naimish Patel, CEO at Gridco Systems. "With the rapid growth of distributed energy resources, increasing emphasis on energy efficiency and peak load reduction, and greater demand for better power quality and reliability, distribution utilities need new tools to manage power in a distributed, dynamic and decoupled fashion. Our emPower Solution is being deployed by leading utilities and demonstrating its ability to provide tangible benefits to utilities and their customers on a daily basis."

Visit us at DistribuTECH 2015. Stop by the Gridco Systems booth #707 at the DistribuTECH Conference & Exhibition, taking place February 3-5, 2015, at the San Diego Convention Center for a live demo and to hear utility partners present their results and experiences.
 

Additionally, please join us and our utility partners at the following courses, sessions and demos:

• UU 101: Distributed Generation: Utility Best Practices and Lessons Learned
  Monday, February 2, 2015, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Room 30A
  Jim Simonelli, CTO, Gridco Systems
• UU 306: CVR, Self-Healing, and Other World Class Feeder Automation Applications – Strategies for Success
  Monday, February 2, 2015, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Room 25C
  Brian McMillan, P. Eng., VP Distribution Electrical Systems, Greater Sudbury Hydro
• Distributed Energy Resources and Renewables Track: Impacts of Integrating Large-scale Renewable Resources Beyond the Meter
  Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 1:00 – 2:30 PM, Room 28AB
  Jim Simonelli, CTO, Gridco Systems
  Jim Parks, Program Manager, Sacramento Municipal Utility District
• Secure DNP 3.0 interoperability demo of our Distributed Grid Controller™ (DGC) at the EPRI booth #4217

About Gridco Systems

Gridco Systems is a leader in agile grid infrastructure solutions, enabling utilities to more effectively integrate renewable and distributed generation, increase energy efficiency, manage peak capacity, and improve system reliability. The Gridco Systems emPower™ Solution combines modular power electronics, advanced controls, distributed networking, and power system analytics to deliver the industry's only end-to-end hardware and software platform purpose built to solve utilities' current and emerging distribution challenges in a distributed, dynamic, and decoupled fashion. To learn more, please visit www.gridcosystems.com.

Media and Analyst inquiries:
Joanna Hamblin
Marketing Manager
Gridco Systems
339-298-3055
[email protected]  

SOURCE Gridco Systems

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