Panasonic Expands its Energy Solutions Business; Introduces Urban Microgrids for India
New Delhi: Panasonic, a diversified technology company, launched urban microgrids, hybrid Energy Storage Systems (ESS) with end to end solutions for Indian market. The integrated solar power microgrids feature efficient, reliable and intelligent power storage solutions to power up urban residential and commercial areas.
The solution allows grid interaction, remote monitoring and data analytics that helps in optimizing the energy usage. Microgrids would enable uninterrupted power supply and enhance operational flexibility for distribution utilities, which are facing challenges in coping up with the increasing demand and network stress, poor power quality and losses, etc. These systems can support overstressed distribution transformers, energy arbitrage, peak shaving, capex deferral and self-consumption. Islanding mode effectively eases the strain of the larger grid system by allowing any sections of the grid to operate independently.
Panasonic plans to cater to the huge market demand by partnering with utility companies providing services to commercial buildings such as hospitals, hotels, malls, industrial buildings and construction industry not just in India but also South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. Taking a step forward in India, Panasonic will be collaborating with BYPL, the leading utility company to provide services in the Delhi region. Through this partnership, Panasonic aims to create energy storage capacity of 60MWH over the next three years which will not only help with grid stabilization, management of peak power demand but also reduce diesel consumption of 4.3 Million litres and 11 thousand tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Consumers will become “Prosumer” by directly integrating solar energy into their system, reduce dependency on costly diesel generators, maintenance free operation, leading to significant reduction in energy bill. Eventually providing support to utility companies for grid and congestion management, grid stabilization, voltage support, etc. which are essential tools to manage its supply with demand and a means of adhering to power quality and reliable targets.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Atul Arya, Head Energy Systems Panasonic India said, “We have made significant investments for competency building in terms of development of high capacity solution range, compliance certifications and automation & data analytics. We have already deployed this product at BSES Yamuna and in Jharkhand with an aim to make energy accessible to the local communities and they have seen considerable improvements in efficiency and better management of power supply. We are in talks with similar other players to deploy our solution.”
Further, commenting on future plans, Mr. Atul Arya said, “We have been steadily ramping up our energy business and with our strong legacy of producing cutting edge technology products and R&D capabilities, we believe, we are uniquely positioned to cater to this growing demand. We are keen on collaborating with the Government of India and various utilities on its initiatives around electrification and developing sustainable energy eco system.”
Panasonic microgrid will consist of Li-ion batteries, hybrid bi-directional inverters, solar charge controllers, EMS and other supporting equipment. Solar system is DC coupled and along with battery system will make the critical backup for the auxiliary load wherein solar system would primarily be used for charging the batteries or directly feeding the load.