Wartsila has won a contract to supply an engineered equipment delivery (EEQ) of a 40 MW / 80 MWh DC-coupled solar plus storage system to the Hickory Park Solar project in Georgia, USA.
The Wartsila system will enable a subsidiary of RWE Renewables, Hickory Park Solar, to sell nearly 200 MW of generation from the solar PV panels to Georgia Power Company.
Wartsila’s GEMS Digital Energy Platform will control the entire hybrid plant, comprising close to 200 MW solar PV and a 80 MWh GridSolv Quantum energy storage system.
GEMS monitors, synchronises, and optimises generation assets at increments of 100 milliseconds, using machine learning and historic and real-time data analytics to calibrate the type of generation needed at any specific time, all under a single portfolio.
Wartsila’s IntelliBidder auto-bidding solution allows Hickory Park Solar to provide Georgia Power a day-ahead firming solar plus storage profile, which will improve the predictability of the intermittent generation. IntelliBidder uses machine learning and algorithms based on automated and forecasted data, taking real-time trading and combining it with a smart control platform that provides value-based asset management and portfolio optimisation.
Hickory Park Solar project will also deploy GridSolv Quantum, Wartsila’s energy storage system (ESS). The project is currently designed with CATL batteries.
The co-located energy storage system will be DC-coupled with the solar system, allowing a number of benefits, such as improved system efficiency, lower balance of plant costs, and clipped solar recapture.
“It is one of the very few projects globally on this scale using DC-coupling. The capabilities of the GEMS software enable effective and efficient control over the entire system, which is essential in this 80 MWh project with the GridSolv Quantum ESS,” said Andy Tang, Vice President, Energy Storage and Optimisation, Wartsila Energy.
Delivery of the Wartsila equipment is scheduled for September 2021. The plant will start commercial operations in November of that year.
Wartsila has previously delivered energy storage solutions to RWE Renewables in Texas and Arizona, USA.