Power lift

Lighting manufacturer invests in energy security

Let’s begin the new year energetically by taking a look at a time-lapse video showing the installation of a super-cool private energy plant in Romania.

A lighting manufacturer – Amiras C&L Impex, who are located in Targoviste, Romania – were experiencing frequent power cuts, which prompted them to invest in energy security.

Power cuts often impact manufacturing companies more severely than those in other industries owing to the loss of raw materials and because of damage caused to plant and machinery when processing unexpectedly ceases, mid-operation.

The arguments in favour of installing energy security become conspicuous because the initial cost of installing private power is amortised even more quickly, followed by many years of ‘free’ energy – at no cost to the environment.

The use of sustainable energy in manufacturing demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility and is a persuasive marketing tool to a new generation of consumers.

Victron distributor Darcom Energy is a family business which has been established for over 30 years. For fifteen years they have been designing and installing solar based energy solutions tailored to their customer’s needs. The installation was completed by Andrei Nica, Vlad Besleaga, Teodorescu Niculae Daniel, Teodorescu Stefan Catalin, Stan Alexandru and others.

The system we are about to see comprises:

6 x 15kVA Quattro Inverter/Chargers configured for 3-phase power supply. The Quattro’s extensive list of features includes two AC inputs – with automatic switching to the live source; and two AC outlets allowing ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ loads to be provided from separate sources, whereby non-essential load will be dropped in the event of a power cut, but essential loads will be maintained with an uninterruptible power supply.
310 x 425W Solar Panels provide 130 kWp. Energy from the panels is controlled by…
13 x SmartSolar MPPT RS 450/200 Tr 48V. These solar charge controllers are built to handle large series-connected solar arrays for charging 48V batteries. SmartSolar Charge controllers can be daisy-chained for synchronised battery charging.
20 x LiFePO4 25.6V/200Ah Lithium Battery Smart. Lithium chemistry’s low resistance allows for fast battery charging – maximising charging on intermittent-sunshine days – and has a long service life with many thousands of charge cycles.
VE.Bus BMS – Battery Management for Victron Lithium batteries. Up to 20 batteries can be connected to the Battery Management system which will protect them against over- and under-voltage, and over- and under temperature.
Lynx Power In units offer protected bus-bar connection from the batteries to DC services using M8 or M10 connectors.
Shunt 6000A /50mV-0,5 / 5x M10 provides clutter-free monitoring of battery voltage, energy out, energy in, for battery capacities of up to 9999Ah. Data can be read from a phone or via communication centre device. In this installation a BMV-712 BT kit was adapted for use with the 6000A shunt.
Cerbo GX. The Cerbo is a communication centre hub which exchanges data between system components – providing total system harmony – and allows the user to monitor system data, as well as providing system programming – both on site, and remotely via the Victron Remote Management (VRM) platform.
A GX Touch 70 provides an intuitive, user-interface and system-programming access via a really neat touch screen.