A large estate in Constantia has been paying an average of R10,000 per month towards electricity fees, so the brief to AWPower was clear – reduce the cost and provide for energy security.
AWPower engineers designed a solar generation system that would supply an average of 46% of the customer’s existing energy usage from solar, with effective savings of R5,700 per month in electricity and payback of around 6.8 years (see table with chart below).
Following the installation & commission of the system, AWPower engineers are focusing on load balancing and implementing energy efficiency measures, including replacement of conventional light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs, to further reduce the electricity expenses.
Technical: The energy solution installed consist of 24kW 3-phase MLT Powerstar Inverter, matched with an array of 60 x 250Wp (15kWp) Solarworld Mono Protect PV panels, mounted with Schletter mounting structures and controlled by a SMA Sunny Tripower 15000-TL 3-phase direct grid tied solar inverter/MPPT. Battery bank consist of 24 x 215Ah 1,600 cycle Trojan battery storage to support the full estate. The battery bank has a storage capacity of 16.2kWh at 50% DoD (Depth of Discharge), and will supply power to the household for approximately 10 hours with a base load of 1.5kWh. An existing 100KVA John Deere generator will provide backup to the system and can be automatically started by the MLT inverter.
Inverter & Battery House: In order to accommodate the inverters & large battery bank and switchgear, AWPower designed & constructed a purpose built inverter house on-site, connected to the existing 100kVA John Deere generator.
Local products & local expertise: AWPower is partnering with local designer and manufacturer MLT Inverters for the bulk of their inverter needs and this partnership is benefitting AWPower customers by offering products which are locally serviced and supported, viewed as a shortcoming in many of the solutions offered by suppliers in the energy sector. “By partnering with MLT Inverters we are able to offer cost effective designs with short lead times on servicing & repair. By buying local we are able to remove the crippling effect of currency fluctuations in our price offerings” said AWPower CEO Henri Hattingh.
