This year, the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum, organized by the New Energy Events LLC took place from 18th October to 20th October 2017 in Miami, United States of America. The conference focused on the enabling environment, commercialization, and implementation in the Caribbean region.
CREF is the biggest annual gathering of both local and international energy stakeholders reaching out for renewable energy investment opportunities in the Caribbean. Representatives from Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Guyana, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad & Tobago gathered together in this year’s forum. They concentrated on investment regulation, financing, utility-scale, distributed generation, storage, smart grids, energy efficiency, and more.
This year, for the first time, The Ontario Government participated in CREF and took part in this hot renewable energy market.
On behalf of our team at Phoventus, our CEO and Managing Director, Rob Lydan attended the Forum. On the first day, after the welcoming remarks, attendees started the Forum with global trends shaping investment in clean energy in the Caribbean. The subtopics included President Trump’s reversal of the U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement.
Another topic was the question of the impact of Irma and Maria on the flow of climate funding in the region. Also, the panel assessed the geopolitical and economic landscape. Moreover, it discussed how global trends would shape the trajectory of investment in the Caribbean over the course of the next decade.
Dr. Cletus Bertin, Executive Director of CARILEC, Joseph Cox, Assistant Secretary-General Trade and Economic Integration of CARICOM Secretariat, Therese Turner-Jones, General Manager, Country Department Caribbean Group of the Inter-American Development Bank, and many other Caribbean energy leaders took the stage. They projected their views about how the region can influence international donors.
Furthermore, they discussed the need of investing more resources to build resiliency in the face of a rapidly changing climate. Additionally, the feasibility of exporting surplus baseload from island to island was discussed. Also, the alignment to streamline the planning and procurement of generation by policy-makers and utilities was one of the topics. These were just some of the many striking facts that were taken into consideration during the conference.
Dialog between stakeholders generated around discussions driven by the need for islands to rethink the approach to resilience and shifted the move from a “What If?” to a “What’s Next?”.
The Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum was very well organized to connect people with the same goals. From networking lunches with roundtable exercises to case studies and presentations of new projects. In fact, exploring and understanding other entities in the region was never been this clear. During the conference, people took initiative to introduce their ideas on new approaches to procurement of renewables in a rapidly evolving market. Finally, people shared new approaches to financing climate & grid resilience, and more.
We collected some of the presentations and graphics for you. So, you can have a look at who are the top performers in the Caribbean and some new projects.
Share of Planned Electricity Produced from RE
Castalia CREF Renewable Energy Island Index and Marketplace
We would like to hear from you; so please let us know if you have further questions/comments about the CREF 2017.
Learn more about the shifting role of the Solar EPC and How the Solar Trade Case Could Change Everything.
As we gear up for Solar Power International, one solar EPC provider reflects on how the industry has changed. There have been many advances over the past few years and providers worry about what’s next.
Just five years ago, solar engineering, procurement, and construction companies (EPCs) were willing to be a lot more flexible when signing contracts to build solar projects than they are today. According to Robert Lydan, CEO and Managing Director at Phoventus, it’s about who takes on the majority of project risk. In fact, it used to fall on the shoulders of the EPCs but today they are increasingly risk-averse.
“The EPC business has grown from a market where clients were able to acquire EPC service with really extensive wraps around the liabilities and energy production estimates and all of the variables of the project,” he explained in an interview. “I’ve seen a very significant degradation of that.”
Lydan said that five years ago in an effort to build market share in what all EPCs understood to be a growing solar market, EPCs were willing to take on a much higher level of project liability.
“There was a time during which people’s desire to penetrate into a new market meant that they would do extraordinary things to do so,” he said.
Finally, take a look at the PDF for the full interview.
A few things affect how keen mining companies are to move from study to the adoption of renewable energy. One thing is the prolonged downturn in minerals and metals commodity prices. The other includes a generally sluggish outlook for the mining industry. That is what Rob Lydan, a former global director for solar and wind renewable power at Hatch in Mississauga, Ontario says. “The commodity outlook is the oxygen that the mining business breathes,” he explains.
Lydan is convinced that most mining companies will proceed cautiously toward adopting solar PV, wind. Or, perhaps other alternative forms of energy within their operations. Of course, that is until commodity prices start to rebound out of their current slump. “At the top of the boom, people’s sole interest is how much more they can get out of the ground.” “And, how fast they can process it,” he says. “During a bust, their singular priority is avoiding cost. Commodity prices are the beginning and end of this business.”
It is true that renewable energy providers may find the current situation frustrating. However, now is the time to position for an uptick in commodity prices. “The ramping in between booms and busts—be it down or up—is when innovative ideas are likely to experience more adoption,” says Lydan. He, therefore, predicts that wind, solar, and other renewable energy options will begin to see greater adoption.” He claims that this will happen when the commodity depression ends and prices climb again.
The solar photovoltaic energy industry has burgeoned in Ontario ever since the provincial government introduced a feed-in-tariff Program two years ago. Under this program, the Ontario Power Authority currently guarantees a fixed price for a 20-year contract. The rates for every kWh generated are from $0.44 for ground utility-scale PV farms all the way up to $.80 for residential rooftop installations.
In 2009, Ontario had 46 MW installed, whereas in 2010 it had 169 MW installed. This year, the projected approved capacity is 455 MW. Most of the Ontario solar industry PV projects are still in the planning stages. But, according to a report by the U.S. Interstate Renewable Energy Council, by 2009 Ontario was already the third-largest market for solar PV installations in North America. It ranked only behind New Jersey and California.
The province’s FIT and MicroFIT programs have drawn scores of manufacturers, installers, developers, and other entrepreneurs anxious to capitalize on the perceived revenues into the solar business. Developments underway range from rooftop units on single-family homes (and aggregations thereof), to commercial-scale solar farms.
Surprisingly, the list of members in CANSia, the Canadian Solar Industries Association based in Ottawa, includes only a handful of the larger consulting engineering companies. There are small specialists and large contractor companies such as Bechtel and Black & McDonald. However, there is only a handful of the larger Canadian consulting engineering companies. We found only Genivar, Hatch, Morrison Hershfield, and Stantec.
Hatch has been an active participant in the solar industry for about 10 years. Moreover, it has a relatively large dedicated team within its renewable energy division. Rob Lydan is former Director of Solar worldwide with Hatch, based in the Mississauga office.
The design of the systems themselves is not complicated, says Lydan. “Building a solar farm is like assembling an automobile. It’s a matter of logistics, geotechnical, electrical, and civil engineering details. It’s not rocket science.” For that reason, many of the companies doing the design offer turnkey projects and use their in-house designers.
“The problem is that if you make an error, then the error is repeated 40,000 times.”
He suggests that this is where the leverage for consulting engineers lies.
Where Hatch comes into the picture is in providing reassurance to the site developers and financiers. “For us in the consulting engineering field, it’s not so much about detailed design. That is because they can go to a Tier 2 shop to get that done. But, from an uncertainty standpoint, when it comes to dealing between the developers, the lenders, the stakeholder, this is primarily the business that we are occupied in.”
Lydan describes their four main fields of solar activity: First is in guiding a proposal through the environmental approval process, which can take up to two years. Hatch has around 70% of the solar REA approvals work in Ontario. And, it is also currently involved in similar work for several 50+ MW solar farms in South Africa.
Second is doing due diligence for the developers and financers: “That’s a big body of work,” Lydan explains. These clients are typically large international banks and insurance companies.
Third, says Lydan, they do base engineering from a pre-feasibility and feasibility standpoint for the project developers and proponents. This stage of work might involve energy production modeling.
Lastly, the consultants might be involved in connecting the solar farm to the main electricity grid. That’s work that involves “interconnections and negotiations with utilities, system design for substations, and interconnections and tap lines,” says Lydan.
Ontario’s goal is to see 2,700 MW installed by 2014 according to its draft Long Term Energy Plan released late last year. And if you think that is ambitious – consider that cloudy Germany already installed 6000 MW of solar PV power in 2010.
A typical 10-MW solar farm will have between 40,000-45,000 panels. One of Canada’s first operating utility-scale solar farms developed under the predecessor of the FIT program the RESOP program was First Light Solar Park in Nepanee, Ontario, a 10.5-MW development by Skypower and Sun Edison.
According to the Canadian solar research company ClearSky, $7.9 billion will be ready for solar PV in Ontario between 2010-2015. They also estimate that solar PV provides 12 times more jobs than nuclear energy per unit of energy produced and 15 times more jobs than coal and gas.
Here is everything you need to know about Implementing Operational Savings for Remote Mines. Take a look.
Rob Lydan’s speech, Canadian Power Engineers’ and Phoventus’ CEO.
Canadian Power Engineers is an Ontario-based, fully licensed, and accredited Engineering firm with a global reputation for excellence in power systems engineering. Above all, we are professional, independent, and focused on delivering value-added results to your renewable power or transportation project.
In fact, we provide engineering and procurement services to cover all aspects of your renewable energy, EV, or Remote Power project. Of course, our services are comprehensive, consisting of system engineering, design studies, and project management.
However, our firm is not a construction company and we don’t do installations ourselves. Instead, we do coordinate and provide engineering design and construction management for your chosen contractor. Unfortunately, we do not provide service to the single residence market at this time.
Our Mission is to provide an unparalleled technical focus on the core issues affecting the ownership, reliability, and profitability of power and energy projects.
We are a driven, passionate team. Our value is our insight into the latest technology and approaches needed to deliver our client’s projects on time and within budget. Renewable Power Specialist.
Until quite recently, miners generally used words like ‘unreliable’, ‘expensive’, and ‘risky’ to describe renewable-energy power. But, outdated perceptions of most forms of renewable power are slowly giving way to a new generation of miners. In fact, they are embracing new renewable energy technologies. Consulting engineering firm Hatch former director of solar and wind, Rob Lydan, participated at the Renewable Energy and Mining Summit, held in Toronto last week. He said that the fact remained that renewable energy was cheaper than fossil fuel power solutions, such as diesel-fired generators.
Today, miners typically spend about 30% of the operating cost of a mine on energy. That is in comparison with 23% to 25% a few years ago. And, at some point, mining firms cannot be profitable unless they decrease the cost of energy. Lydan pointed out that operating a typical diesel-powered generation set would cost about $0.28/kWh to $0.32/kWh, compared with the current average operating cost of solar power of about $0.17/kWh and wind power of about $0.14/kWh.
However, owing to the supply of renewable energy technologies being inherently intermittent, except for geothermal power plants capable of maintaining baseload requirements at the low end of the cost curve, a more advantageous approach for miners would be to engineer hybrid renewables solutions. They will increase the installation’s reliability, while, at the same time, achieve operating cost savings of 10% to 30%.
Lydan said the balance between diesel and renewable power had tipped owing to the price of both solar and wind energy has declined significantly. In fact, the cost of solar energy components had fallen by nearly two-thirds in the past three years, he said. Miners like the concept of green energy for a number of reasons. They prefer it because it helps new projects gain a social license, it leaves a positive legacy after the mine closes. And, it gives companies the potential to earn carbon credits. But, he stressed, miners, need the promise of cost reductions before making a move.
“At this point, hybrid energy projects have to compete against all the capital demands of the mine. And they have to have a payback similar to any capital activity at the mine. “Renewable power project performance is so well understood these days that risk premiums associated with their adoption in utility markets are lower than the risk premium in mining projects,” Lydan said, adding that investors were in fact keener to invest in a new renewable-energy project than in a new mining project in the current economic climate. Renewables solutions for mines make the most sense for projects in remote locations, especially for off-grid projects.
Lydan pointed out that component costs did not determine the type of renewable energy a mine should implement. But, rather what natural resources were available. Size mattered too; Lydan explained that solar projects were easier to install for small energy requirements. That is because cranes and other heavy equipment are not necessary. Of all the issues resources firms needed to consider around implementing a renewable solution, integration remained the top issue. “Miners won’t accept a situation where you’re going to shut down their mine. They’re not interested in that. Therefore, everything from the question of backup energy sources to protecting the power system at a mine needs to be carefully considered,” he said.
This is the third year that Phoventus has been part of the Bloomberg NEF Tier 1 survey. Read more about Solar Module & Inverter Bankability 2019.
Our firm was founded as Lydan Partners Inc. in 2009 and merged with Phoventus in 2016 to become Phoventus Inc. Therefore, Canadian Power Engineers is the newest member of the family and a wholly-owned division of Phovetus Inc.
Canadian Power Engineers is an Ontario-based, fully licensed, and accredited Engineering firm with a global reputation for excellence in power systems engineering. Above all, we are professional, independent, and focused on delivering value-added results to your renewable power or transportation project.
We provide engineering and procurement services to cover all aspects of your renewable energy, EV, or Remote Power project. Of course, our services are comprehensive, consisting of system engineering, design studies, and project management.
However, our firm is not a construction company and we don’t do installations ourselves. We do coordinate and provide engineering design and construction management for your chosen contractor. Unfortunately, we do not provide service to the single residence market at this time.
Our Mission is to provide an unparalleled technical focus on the core issues affecting the ownership, reliability, and profitability of power and energy projects.
Above all, we are a driven, passionate team. Our value is our insight into the latest technology and approaches needed to deliver our client’s projects on time and within budget. Renewable Power Specialist.
Get to know more about Solar Module & Inverter Bankability 2019.
Non-Pilot Protection of the Inverter-Dominated Microgrid.
Without utilizing costly communication systems, the existing protection strategies fail to reliably detect the occurrence and direction of faults in the inverter-dominated microgrid.
In order to address this issue, this paper introduces a selective and reliable non-pilot protection strategy. It addresses the inverter-dominated microgrid. In fact, the proposed protection strategy does not require communication signals. It incorporates phase- and sequence-domain protective elements for reliable detection of symmetrical and asymmetrical faults. Furthermore, it improves the existing sequence-domain directional elements. In particular, it effectively utilizes them for accurate determination of the fault direction.
Of course, this happens in the presence of inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources. In addition, it selectively protects the inverter-dominated microgrid against internal and external faults. Finally, it is robust against the grid-connection mode of the microgrid and enables fuse protection of laterals and non-critical circuits.
The acceptable performance of the proposed protection strategy is verified through comprehensive fault studies. They were conducted on a realistic study system simulated in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. This paper also demonstrates that the proposed protection strategy can serve by using an off-the-shelf digital relay.
The proliferation of the alternating current (AC) microgrid holds down because of the lack of a cost-effective, selective, and reliable strategy for its protection against faults. The protection strategies used in traditional distribution networks are not generally applicable to microgrids. The protection challenges are further complicated in the inverter-dominated microgrid to which the majority, if not all, of the distributed energy resources (DERs), are interfaced through inverters. The issue is threefold.
First, the conventional over-current (OC) relays may fail to detect the limited fault currents contributed by the inverter-interfaced DERs (IIDERs). Second, coordinating the OC relays in the inverter-dominated microgrid is challenging, due to the significantly different fault current levels under the grid-connected and islanded operation modes. Third, the conventional phase- and sequence-domain directional elements fail to accurately determine the fault direction in the inverter-dominated microgrid. This happens under specific operating conditions, as demonstrated in this paper.
Different microgrid protection strategies are in place in order to address these issues.
To view the PDF, please click here.
Solar repowering is an overhaul of certain components in a solar plant such as modules, inverters, racking, etc. due to degradation, design mismatch, or destructive failure, resulting in reduced energy production or plant downtime. It is also an excellent opportunity for plants to improve operational efficiency and add ancillary services to the service portfolio by adding storage.
Although we are approaching the sunset period of some major government incentives, innovation in solar technology during the last decade has drastically reduced the capital expenditure of solar plants. Examples include the cost of modules, inverters, and even battery storage. Hence, Repowering may be able to restore the profitability of a plant at a minimal cost. Repowering initiatives can drastically increase energy production and export of solar plants by reducing downtime due to string power loss, repeated inverter failure, maintenance, or transfer trip.
The cost of adding energy storage or upgrading inverters can be directly offset by offering value-add grid services such as frequency regulation and black-start. Storage systems prevent losses due to inverter clipping when production exceeds the grid requirement, which may accumulate to a substantial amount over the plant’s lifetime. However, given the enormous financial implications, repowering should only be undertaken after a comprehensive cost-benefit evaluation of each case. Of course, all based on unique challenges and technological offerings at the time.
Solar farms have a design life span of 20 to 25 years. It corresponds to the average performance warranty period of most solar modules. However, plants may start underperforming as early as within five years of commissioning. This happens due to manufacturing defects and substandard engineering design of panels, inverters, or protection devices. Sometimes, manufacturer bankruptcy also dramatically reduces options for operators to ensure continued operation, due to voided warranty or O&M support. The need for repowering originates from one or more of these challenges occurring together.
Phoventus serves its clients with insightful knowledge of technical, financial, and regulatory affairs that impact the long-term viability of reenergizing solar projects. It draws on the vast experience of its team on renewable energy technology, to navigate through the details and dependably support a project at all stages of development.
Phoventus was contracted to provide engineering support of Solar project ARC Flash Assessments for 3 Ontario Utility-Scale Solar Projects.
Between December 3ʳᵈ, 2018, and February 28ᵗʰ, 2019, Phoventus provided a full-wrap arc flash study, including prerequisite studies and data collection. A site inspection took place between January 3ʳᵈ, and January 6ᵗʰ, 2019. The study was completed using ETAP 18.1.1 and included both DC and AC studies.
This work conformed to the following standards: ANSI (1/2 Cycle), IEEE
946, IEEE 1584-2002, DC Arc Flash (Stokes & Oppenlander).
Several regulations, codes, and standards define requirements for Arc Flash safety, including OSHA, NFPA 70E, CSA Z462, IEEE 1584-2018, and NESC. Article 130.5 of NFPA 70E requires employers to perform an Arc Flash risk assessment for electrical equipment and to update the study every five years.