In this article we look at what options are available to a nursery looking to expand operations, negate its reliance on grid power and cope with ever increasing brownouts and blackouts which is all part of a T.E.M.S. approach ( total energy management strategy).
The problem that they constantly were encountering was an inconsistent power supply. Brownouts and blackouts are common in the area, and Dan was aware that this was having a significant impact on his lifestyle and business.
Dan engaged Greenwood to look over his existing electrical infrastructure to see how we could help with his energy needs to give consistent supply as he is on a SWER ( single wire earth return) line.
There is a 10A bore pump, 2 X 9.5A water pumps, 8A UV water treatment pump that all play a critical role in delivering enough clean water, via a complex irrigation system, to where needed.
In addition to the above there were all the standard house loads; 3 x split AC system which were 9 amps each and all the usual appliances including washing machine and an oven.
Before we went to site, Veli, our CEC accredited battery off-grid specialist, asked Dan a series of questions that helped ascertain what we were actually dealing with, what expectations Dan and Jenny had and what could be realistically achieved.
Pat, Chief A Grade at Greenwood, arrived at the site and performed an energy audit that identified all the site loads on the property, how long they were on for per day and how we could integrate as much solar as possible to handle their particular load profile, a standard house and business, in addition to calculate the required storage component given the electrical infrastructure.
With any PV system, you need to be aware of the voltage of the incoming supply and how the system will perform based on what services are on site.
Pat's recommendation was to install solar on the main shed but with an orientation of North South, we needed to come up with a solution that provided the most amount of energy production to service the considerable day time loads, charge the batteries for their night time duties and still have enough storage component to cope with the frequent brownouts and blackouts.
Greenwood designed a system that consisted of:
Each side of the roof runs off to its own Tesla Powerwall 2 w / Gateway.
The PV system will produce on average, 68kWh of renewable energy per day. If power is lost to the property, the batteries will kick in and maintain critical loads. The system has also been designed so that any power that is not needed for the critical loads will go into assisting with his night time load to reduce his overall energy spend.
The system offers long term reliable energy needs for the property and also offers flexibility through the Tesla Gateway as the business ramps up.
If you’d like to see more of what Greenwood Solutions get up to in the real world of renewable energy, solar, battery storage and grid protection check out the following pages:
https://www.greenwoodsolutions.com.au/industry
https://www.greenwoodsolutions.com.au/commercial
https://www.greenwoodsolutions.com.au/commercial/customer-stories
https://www.greenwoodsolutions.com.au/news
https://www.greenwoodsolutions.com.au/customer-stories/jd-propagation-yandoit
