Enphase Energy Inc., a solar technology provider, has upgraded approximately 800,000 of its smart microinverters installed in Hawaii that will help to better integrate photovoltaic systems into Hawaii’s island grids.
Enphase said it collaborated with Hawaiian Electric and other industry partners to find technical solutions for integrating high levels of PV in Hawaii at a low cost to end-customers. More than 60% of the rooftop solar systems installed by 51,000 households are equipped with Enphase microinverter systems.
Hawaiian Electric and Enphase have been working closely with other industry partners to determine new frequency and voltage ride-through settings that would allow rooftop solar installations to be more tolerant when a problem occurs on the grid, which in turn helps improve the stability of the overall grid.
Because Enphase’s microinverters are software-defined, Enphase was able to make these updates remotely and quickly, and saving “tens of millions of dollars by avoiding the need to send personnel out in the field to update the settings manually,” Enphase said.
