The manufacturing process involves a lot of cutting, pressing and welding, often facilitated by large machines.

It is a cyclic process with high energy usage during the welding process, so the site has high fluctuations in energy demand. The customer has limited grid capacity at the site and the peaking loads limit production.

To address this a large solar array was placed on the workshop roof several years ago and expanded again in recent times. Unfortunately, this has only been partially successful with much of the electricity produced by the midday solar being exported but not enough solar-derived power being available to cover the late afternoon load.

As a result, the solar installation helped save energy costs but only for a specific and very limited period of time during the day. The customer was still experiencing high network and energy prices when buying electricity in the afternoon ‘shoulder’ period.

In consultation with the Fuseco Energy Management team and the site electrician, the customer selected an SInexcel ISUNA system to control the site’s energy requirements and make better use of the investment made in renewables.

A power analyser was installed for 2 weeks to collect accurate site data and based on this information, Fuseco proposed a design incorporating 4 x 20kW ISUNA Three Phase hybrid inverters. The power meter (supplied as standard) was installed at the metering point, allowing the energy from the existing solar grid inverters to be AC coupled and managed by the ISUNA unit.

Importantly, the system design was set to capture the energy from the excess solar production during the middle of the day and in particular the hour of zero production during the lunch break.

This energy was then stored and used to supplement the site’s requirements during the afternoon. The customer also used the backup port on ISUNA to supply their data components in the administration office.

With better use of the installed solar panels, the customer has experienced new levels of productivity and a significant reduction in electricity costs (more than 62%).

Despite the fluctuation in load, the power on the site is now more consistent. During the morning, night-time and cloudy periods, the consumption is covered completely by the ISUNA system and due to the efficient battery storage, buying from the grid has been minimized completely.

During grid power outages, ISUNA continues to supply power to critical loads. Management is very happy with the way ISUNA has extended the capacity of the site, cut the costs and the results are showing on the bottom line. The reduction of grid dependency has given peace of mind and energy freedom as well as reducing the company’s carbon footprint.