ABB and Skagerak Energi collaborate on first-of-its kind solar-powered energy lab that will use microgrid solution coupled with a battery energy storage system to gather insight about power grids of the future
The word “team” will take on new meaning at the Odd soccer club’s Skagerak Arena in Skien, Norway. The arena’s rooftop will soon be covered with 5,700 square meters of solar cells to produce electricity as part of a new energy lab to be established there.
ABB, in collaboration with utility Skagerak, will supply a modular microgrid solution with ABB Ability™ PowerStore Battery, a Microgrid Plus control and automation system and remote monitoring capability, as well as ABB Ability™ PVS solar string inverters and a weather station. ABB will provide technical services to the energy lab for five years.
The photovoltaic system will power floodlights at the team’s home soccer games and provide the neighborhood with locally produced power. It will also allow the utility to collect insights into how a prosumer system, where customers are both producing and consuming electricity, operates under various conditions.
“The number of prosumers is on the rise, and this project will help us cope with the dynamic conditions created by consumers also producing power and the use of energy storage,” says Øivind Askvik, director Skagerak Nett AS. “A flexible control system is crucial to gathering insight into how the entire power system, including solar and other renewables, energy storage, producers and conventional consumers, operates during different conditions. By better understanding it, we hope to reduce grid investments.”
To serve as an inspiration
ABB and partner FUSen will provide engineering, equipment, installation, and commissioning of Skagerak Energilab. The yearly power consumption of the stadium is 375,000 kWh, and the new solar installation together with the ABB Ability PowerStore and its battery energy storage would cover Odd soccer club’s requirements for power and provide enough electricity to meet the needs of 15 homes in the local area.
ABB Ability is ABB’s unified, cross-industry digital offering with more than 210 solutions.
Links
- Website: Distributed energy resources and microgrids
- Video: What is a microgrid?
- Video: PowerStore – Reliable power wherever and whenever it is needed
- Brochure: Microgrid Solutions – Delivering resilient power anywhere at any time
- Brochure: PowerStore – Reliable power wherever and whenever it is required
- Website: Microgrid Plus Control System
