New Industry Products

Utility-Scale PV and Energy Storage Inverters

July 10, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

Power management company Eaton announced new higher-power models of its Power Xpert® Solar and energy storage inverters for grid-tied utility-scale projects. Eaton Power Xpert 2,000-kW and 2,200-kW solar inverters and 2,500-kW energy storage inverters provide some of the highest power ratings for grid-tied, utility-scale projects.

“Eaton scaled up the size of our inverter platform to provide customers with an even more cost-effective solution for large-scale projects,” said Chris Thompson, grid power business unit manager, Eaton. “Over the last few years, Eaton has deployed numerous energy storage and solar solutions around the world and our Power Xpert inverter technology offers customers industry-leading performance and reliability.”

The Eaton solar inverter technology yields best-in-class levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and has an industry leading 98.5 percent efficiency by the California Energy Commission (CEC). The solar inverters are designed and tested to meet the Underwriters Laboratories® (UL) 1741 standard, are outdoor-rated and feature a wide Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) voltage range. A proprietary Eaton control strategy and filter design optimizes the inverter efficiency, while providing ultra-low output distortion.

Eaton Power Xpert energy storage inverters are designed to increase electrical resiliency in large-scale applications and work with a wide-range of battery chemistries to store and transmit power. The inverter design also helps provide precise power ramp rate control and frequency regulation to enhance the reliability of electrical power transmission and distribution.

All Power Xpert inverters include integrated fiber networking equipment, grid protection relay, ac and dc switchgear as well as direct throat coupling to the transformer. Low pressure liquid cooling supports long component life with minimal parts count. The Power Xpert inverters are a central part of Eaton’s equipment portfolio for solar and storage applications. When combined in package solutions with Eaton’s medium-voltage transformers and interconnection switchgear, customers can rapidly deploy compact solutions designed to meet a variety of grid service requirements.