Dynapower, a Vermont-based company with a decade of experience in microgrids, recently achieved a first by winning a key smart inverter certification for its storage-only energy inverter.
Specifically, Dynapower’s MPS-250 inverter met UL 1741 SA, the draft requirements for smart inverters. Intertek, a total quality assurance provider for industry, certified the inverter.
No energy-storage only inverter has met the requirement before.
“This technology enables PV integration and improved grid resiliency, both of which are crucial steps toward developing smart grids and smart cities,” said Sunny Rai, vice president of renewable energy at Intertek.
The Dynapower inverter opens up some of the previously restrictive operating parameters around AC voltage and frequency fluctuations, according to Chip Palombini, sales manager of the energy storage group at Dynapower.
As a result, the inverter enables more and more deployment of renewable energy on the grid and in microgrids, he said in a recent interview.
By way of example, Palombini described a Dynapower project underway in Hawaii where a utility has been experiencing significant voltage fluctuations because of a high amount of solar use. The smart inverter regulates the voltage automatically and solve the fluctuation problem.
Compliance with the UL standard ensures that Dynapower’s storage-only energy inverter is California Rule 21 and Hawaii Rule 14H compliant.
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In addition to the smart inverter features required by the new standard, Dynapower also incorporated Dynamic Transfer as a standard feature into the Generation 2 MPS-250. Dynamic Transfer enables a ‘backup power’ mode of operation for energy storage systems.
“If you have an energy storage system at your office, and the power goes out, with Dynamic Transfer, the energy storage will act as a UPS to power the building through the grid outage,” Palombini said.
Dynapower is a technology leader that worked on its first microgrid — a diesel and energy storage facility – a decade ago for a research facility in Antarctica.
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