Supporting an off-grid hydro powered community
The village of Inverie, on the Knoydart peninsula in Scotland, relies on a hydro scheme dating from the 1970’s and diesel generators for all it’s power. Find out how StorTera worked with the community to provide an intelligent battery system to support the remote yet bustling community’s needs.
Project Details
Customer
Knoydart Renewables
Location
Knoydart peninsula, Scotland
Project Value
£50k to £100k
Project Title
Knoydart Renewables
Sector
Off Grid Community/Island
Project Completion
2025-01-15
Partners
Energy MutualGilkes and Gordon ltd
Solution
System Components
Customer Challenge
Off-Grid Electrification
With a growing community, expanding tourism and ever-increasing electrification, Knoydart’s hydro scheme and backup diesel generators were struggling to meet peak electrical demand. Compounding these issues, climate change modelling predicts lower rainfall in future - a further challenge for the predominantly hydro powered village.
The community energy company, Knoydart Renewables, knew a diversified energy system with solar PV and battery energy storage was needed to ensure a reliable energy supply in future, so began discussions with the team at StorTera to find a solution to address their unique challenges.
Knoydart Renewables operates an islanded microgrid, that supplies almost 100 customers from the single 300kVA hydro turbine with 2 x 100kVA diesel generators used as back power. The hydro turbine is fed by Loch Bhraomisaig, some 300m above the turbine house; and despite its location on the west coast of Scotland, water conservation is essential to allow consistent operation and power supply to the village.
Additional challenges were faced by the team operating the microgrid during maintenance of the hydro scheme and during unplanned faults when the diesel generators were pushed to peak capacity.
Solution
Future-proof BESS
StorTera supplied a 50kW/75kWh StorHub BESS in a future- proof enclosure that enables simple and cost-effective expansion. StorTera’s Traicon energy management platform was configured to provided synthetic inertia for the Knoydart micro-grid during hydro operation, allowing water consumption of the hydro system to be decreased by up to 20%. This reduction in water use has helped provide confidence in the micro-grid’s ability to cope with drier conditions and will enable further expansion of the community.
The StorHub also provides support for the back-up diesel generators that are required when maintenance is performed on the hydro scheme which ensures they operate in the optimal part of their efficiency curve, thereby lowering diesel requirements, carbon emissions and fuel costs.
Customer Benefits
- Maximum efficiency of both hydro turbine and generators
- Clean back up power in case of black out/hydro maintenance
- Water conservation of up to 20% due to frequency response
- Easy future expandability
Customer Satisfaction
More resilient energy system with cleaner back up power
Efficiency
Boosts peak capacity of diesel generators while improving their efficiency
Environment
Helps reduce water consumption of hydro system by up to 20%
Resilience
Back-up support for critical loads in the event of a failure or maintenance of hydro turbine
Contact Us
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