Schneider Electric designs Spain’s first smart microgrid for the Solar Decathlon Europe initiative 2010

For the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe, the organizers required from contestants a micro-grid system able to connect houses’ electric systems to the local utility service provider..

Strategic sponsor of this 2010 European edition, Schneider Electric, for the project of the Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluña, has imagined a low tension grid that interconnects the house and its solar panels, linking them instantly to local and global grids, through two MV/LV substations supplied by the Group.

Therefore, Schneider Electric has invented a smart microgrid: a radical new way of managing energy that connects all the different energy sources (renewables, batteries, grids...), balances the energy flows and adapts, in real-time, the energy offer to the demand.

This innovation has been designed to answer to some of the most important needs of the users, such as being able to sell the excess of energy to the grid, check their consumption and production of energy at any time, control the energy flows, store the excess of energy for future consumption, manage remotely the system and exchange information with the utility if needed. Furthermore, the excess of energy will go to the Madrid public grid.

This Spain's first smart microgrid has been developed by Schneider Electric with HOMES, a collaborative innovation programme designed to create solutions to achieve optimal energy performance in all buildings. Created in 2008, the four-year programme brings together 13 manufacturers and research organizations led by Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management. HOMES is supported by the French Agency for Innovation (OSEO).

The Dawn of the Smart Grid

Renewable energies, supply-demand optimisation, energy efficiency, electrical vehicle, intelligence and communication everywhere... These mega-trends revolutionize the way people distribute and control energy, from power plant to plug, turning the classic linear energy grid into an intelligent and interactive network : the Smart Grid.

This revolution is influenced by four main triggers :

1. Renewable energies, allowing consumers to be their own utilities and creating the need to connect theses distributed sources to the central grid;

2. Active energy efficiency and energy management, making energy visibl e and giving consumers the means to act on their energy consumption;

3. Electric vehicles, reshaping the way everyone thinks about private and public transportation;

4. Real-time grid management, to anticipate consumption and adapt energy supply accordingly.

Only companies who have the right understanding of behavioural and technological implications behind these triggers will be able to make the most of the Smart Grid innovation opportunities.

Schneider Electric has the vision, the portfolio, and the commitment to be one of them.

Schneider Electric integrated solutions for renewable energies

2010 Solar Decathlon Europe

Renewable energies are key to solve the dilemma caused by the evolution of energy demand facing the need to reduce CO2 emissions. As the global specialist in energy management, Schneider Electric sets the standard for a safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green energy. Its ability to offer an array-to-grid solution and related services to manage and convert the electricity produced by the renewable sources (wind, solar photovoltaic, hydro, etc..) and feed it to the grid makes Schneider Electric the only market operator to provide end-to-end management of solar array intelligence.

By offering an integrated, end-to-end solution and acting as the sole contact for plant management for the operator, Schneider Electric demonstrates unique know-how that complements the expertise of solar panel designers and sets it apart from competitors. Its products and services cover every requirement, from generation to the grid. They include feasibility studies, power distribution architecture design, the supply of all types of equipment including junction boxes, inverters, prefabricated transformer substations, MV transformer substations, supervision system and video surveillance, as well as operation and maintenance of the energy system.

Through its operating and maintenance services, Schneider Electric can guarantee to the operator the availability of its installation, leveraging both preventive maintenance to anticipate problems and monitoring equipment installed at critical locations in the system. The monitoring devices provide a variety of data on the array's operation - the status of the photovoltaic modules and inverters, the production modules, fault reporting and alarms - and enable Schneider