S&C provides voltage control to Orkney wind project

Smart-grid integrator S&C Electric Company is helping to bring more wind energy to the Orkney Islands, located off the northern coast of Scotland.

The Thorkell project, under development by Orkney Sustainable Energy, will add 900 kilowatts of new wind energy to the base of renewable energy already installed in the islands, which are home to around 20,000 people.

S&C plans to equip the project with its single-inverter PureWave DSTATCOM Distributed Static Compensator to allow the wind energy system to meet voltage control requirements.

All renewable energy sources — even small systems like the single-turbine Thorkell project—need to to comply with local requirements to ensure grid stability and reliability. S&C says its single-inverter model provides an economical solution for small renewable energy projects of under 3.5 megawatts.

Andrew Jones, managing director for S&C Europe, says the PureWave DSTATCOM technology enables important community-based projects like Thorkell to be brought online.

In the UK and Ireland alone, S&C PureWave DSTATCOM systems are currently planned to connect a total of 255 megawatts of wind energy to the grid. The Thorkell project is S&C’s second in the Orkney Islands.