OCC-DVC Excites Utilities
In January, OCC demonstrated a new product OCC-DVC (Click here) that represents a technological breakthrough in power grid voltage control, enabling stable operation for high penetration of DER, reducing of occurrence of blackout, voltage VAR optimization (VVO), conservation voltage reduction (CVR) for energy saving, capacity release for constrained circuits, etc.
The core technology of the OCC-DVC, OCC-Reactive Power Supply Inverter (RPSI), was developed under partial support from the United States Department of Energy. The OCC-RPSI features ultra-fast P and Q dynamic response, which makes smooth and precise grid control possible. This technology mitigates intermittency, enables increased DER penetration, and improves grid resilience. One other important feature of the OCC-DVC is its small footprint; a +/-240kVAR unit installs on a standard 4’ x 4’ transformer pad.
The OCC-DVC is currently servicing the US power grid, regulating grid voltage to a flat line. OCC’s USA Utility customer expressed their passion in a recent GreenTech Media article (Click here). They stated: “In circuits that have a decent amount of penetration (solar) -- about 10 percent to 15 percent -- you can start to see significant waveform changes, as you’ve got clouds coming over, systems switching in and out.” Without “VAR injection and power support, these fluctuations are much harder to manage, and the grid equipment that can do the task will wear out much more quickly, making it a much more expensive prospect. Here are two charts from an SDG&E circuit that show how smart inverter functions can help, by bringing widely fluctuating voltage levels back to a steady, predictable flat line.”
Upon experiencing OCC-DVC capability, OCC’s customer was leading a consortium of Western utilities demanding that state utility regulators and lawmakers start working with industry standards groups to set rules that would require all future solar installations come with inverters capable of a specific set of grid-balancing tasks. On 08/07/2013, CEOs, Presidents, and VPs from 16 Western utilities jointly signed a letter to Governors, Commissioners, and Legislators, “to make rules to use such technology to provide the necessary voltage support for us to integrate these resources effectively and prevent costly future renovations and reliability impact.” The groundbreaking OCC-DVC demonstration result initialed the movement of SMART inverters in the United States.