Russelectric releases new distributed energy controller
Russelectric has released a new distributed energy controller, designed for complex, mission critical systems, ranging from back-up generation and demand management to fully functional microgrids.
Called the Russelectric Distributed Energy Controller (RDEC), it incorporates the company’s transfer switches, switchgear and power controller.
The controller integrates renewables, offers priority-based load shedding and emissions optimization, improves power quality, and optimizes assets, demand, on-site storage and power generation. Some of the controller’s other features include dynamic islanding, fast and reliable decoupling, automatic blackstart of backup generators, and seamless grid resynchronization, according to Russelectric.
Ice Energy wins $40M in funding
Ice Energy, a California-based thermal energy storage company, has entered into a long-term funding agreement with private equity manager Argo Infrastructure Partners.
Argo will provide $40 million in funding for Ice Energy and its current projects, which are supported by long-term utility contracts to manage peak power demand and load shifting.
“Through our collaboration with Argo, the funding needs of our existing projects are now met, and we have a quality source of capital enabling us to accelerate market development both in the U.S. and internationally,” said Mike Hopkins, CEO of Ice Energy. “Argo shares our view that thermal energy storage, and our Ice Bear technology in particular, has the potential to take a very significant share of a fast-growing market.”
Shanghai microgrid uses retired EV batteries
GreatWall Power has installed used electric vehicle batteries in a grid-connected microgrid at an industrial park in Shanghai.
The microgrid includes about 25 kW of wind power and 20 kW photovoltaic solar. The batteries contribute 50kW/150kWh of energy storage.
All of the lithium batteries are retired electric vehicle batteries. GreatWall Power tested and used the battery packs without disassembling and repacking them.
Maxwell Technologies releases energy storage for microgrids and grids
Maxwell Technologies, which is based in San Diego, California, has released two ultracapacitor products, Grid Energy Storage System and the Grid Cell Pack.
Grid Energy Storage allows utility equipment OEMs, electric utilities, microgrid providers and large scale commercial and industrial customers to provide near real-time grid and microgrid response to imbalances in grid voltage and frequency. The system includes advanced interfaces for two-way communications, monitoring, and control to utility, microgrid, and commercial/industrial communication networks.
Grid Cell Pack provides energy storage scalability in the form of an energy dense storage module with an open mechanical architecture to reduce system cost and complexity. It dispatches power in milliseconds and can be deployed to stabilize frequency, provide voltage support, smooth renewable power output and provide bridging power as a stand-alone energy resource or when combined with batteries.
“Leveraging a utility-driven design perspective, these scalable products represent a breakthrough for our customers to deliver reliable, safe, and long lifetime storage performance in grids and microgrids,” said Thibault Kassir, Maxwell Technologies vice president and general manager, energy storage.
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