This Report provides insights into the construction and operation of the Prot Gregory Microgrid. The Port Gregory Microgrid comprises a 2.5MW wind farm, 1MW solar farm, and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) incorporating 2x 2.2MVA back-to-back inverters and 0.5MWh battery, providing transient stability and generation smoothing functionality. This ensures the reliability, security, and power quality to the customer (GMA Garnet) is maximised.
Report extract
The Port Gregory Microgrid is a groundbreaking project, representing a new generation of medium size fringe-of-grid microgrids. This new generation of microgrids can deliver reliable and affordable clean energy to fringe-of-grid customers in Western Australia by using a novel inverter connection topology.
AER’s ‘back-to-back’ inverter topology maximizes customer side renewable penetration (up to 100%) and gives the customer an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) service by being connected to the grid (via a grid-side inverter) while supplying the load from a separate grid-forming inverter (connected to the grid-side inverter via a DC link with integrated battery storage).
The microgrid represents an advanced, state of the art step forward in the management and operation of grid connected microgrids. The operation of the microgrid is fully automated by an advanced control system developed inhouse by AER’s engineers. The control system is constantly reviewed and optimized to increase the renewable contribution and reliability of the system.