PV Diesel Hybrid Systems
These are systems to lower the consumption of diesel in the production of electricity. PV Diesel Hybrid Systems are ideal to use when :
- Diesel is being used in the ‘Base-Load’.
- Your primary source of power is Diesel and it is being used for 8 hrs or more a day.
- Your primary usage of power occurs during hours of good solar access i.e during daylight hours with good sun.
The PV Diesel Hybrid solution can be used with diesel generators and co-gen plants. Such a solution typically does not involve usage of storage batteries due to cost and maintenance involved. Customers find these to be highly desirable solutions as forward contracts for diesel are high and prices of PV solutions are at all time lows.
Most Diesel gensets can be idled at 30% of their nominal capacity with no changes to the existing setup. The ratio of PV power to Diesel power is known as the penetration ratio. This can be as high as 60%. Higher ratios need careful load planning and the possible introduction of batteries.
- Take the PV inverter offline using a relay
- Scale back PV inverter output using frequency shifting
- Utilize diversion loads to absorb the excess power
Current future contracts for Diesel when compared with current pricing for PV, indicate 2-4 year paybacks. Your specific situation needs to be evaluated. Committing to this solution locks in the cost for a portion of your electric bill.
A risk free option for gaining immediate positive cash flow improvements through retaining budgeted energy payments.