Case Study

Rural property using SoNick batteries for grid independence – Domestic Case Study

This domestic installation was designed to run as a grid minimisation installation. Although the grid remains available it is actually switched off.

The house is a rural property and is completely electric so electricity usage is higher than it could be for a normal suburban house. Water pumps, electric fences and all electric cooking can use a lot of electricity. Although the electric hot water uses evacuated tubes to heat with solar, this is often not enough in cooler months so the solar / battery system also heats the electric hot water tank.

The system consists of 11.2 KW QCells solar PV panels on a 25-degree pitch
1 x Victron 450/250 MPPT
2 x 9.6 kWh SoNick batteries which equates to 15.5 kWh recommended useable storage
1 x Victron 10 kVA Qattro inverter
1 x Victron Cerbo as the brains of the system which allows the whole system to be monitored remotely and any changes to the system can also be done remotely.

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Mobile Renewable Energy Systems for emergency services

A recent joint project between GridEdge, Earthworker Energy and DEECA was to build 3 prototype portable renewable energy systems to supply renewable power for replacement of large diesel generators in emergency response settings supporting DELWP, CFA and SES

The prototypes were;

– 58 kWh battery energy storage, 20 kVA inverter capacity, single phase and 15 kW PV in a custom-built shell on skids similar to current diesel generators

– 20 kWh battery energy storage, 5 kVA inverter capacity and 1.5 kW PV in a portable Trailer

– A portable site hut with built-in 9.6 kWh battery, 5 kVA inverter capacity and 5 kVA PV generation capacity

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SoNick battery replaces lead acid batteries in off-grid installation – case study.

People install battery systems for many reasons and likewise people choose battery technologies for various reasons.

For many years people have used lead acid batteries as a known battery technology, particularly in off grid installations. A battery of choice has often been used Telecom batteries which are replaced regularly from telecom installations that need guaranteed UPS (uninterrupted power supply) capabilities. As these batteries are often sold at a vastly reduced cost it is economical for off-grid households to add a large number of batteries to an off-grid system to allow for reduced capacity of the batteries.

Unfortunately, for lead acid battery systems the battery system operates at the capacity of the weakest battery so you are unable to use new lead acid batteries in older systems and would need to replace the whole bank of batteries when more capacity is needed.

Lead acid batteries are well known for having a “falling off the cliff reputation” and degrading very suddenly and quickly, often with no warning. This happens particularly often in cold or hot weather. Coincidentally this is often when batteries are needed the most for heating and cooling. At the same time, most people who live off grid have learnt to manage their electricity usage to only use what is available and to use a generator when batteries are unavailable.

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Stability of SoNick battery – case study.

An installer recently contacted us to talk about the performance of a SoNick battery he had bought 8 years ago.

Originally it was purchased as part of a portable trailer system. The battery was utilised in this capacity for a number of years. It was used to supply power in power outages and at events, as well as being used as a showcase of the SoNick battery and what could be achieved in a portable power system.

*** Note: not all batteries are suitable for use in portable power systems due to the risk of damaging their cells due to trailer movements and due to the risk of fire in case of accident or cell damage.

Due to the intermittent use of this trailer, the battery was often left to go cold between uses then heated up again when needed.

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Radial Renewable Energy Park at Yarram Sawmill

GridEdge is currently involved in a project to create a Renewable Energy Park at the Radial Timbers Sawmill in Yarram.

The project will establish a “Bioenergy Cell” that incorporates the GridEdge SoNick Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and The Earth Systems

Stage 1 of the Renewable Energy will be the installation of 2 installations of 100kW solar & 90 kWh battery storage on each of the 2 mills at Radial timber.

The battery installations are using 4 x 620V SoNick batteries in a SoNick Zebra container. Each battery installation is supported by an ELPower 100 KW PCS (power conditioning system).

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