Jul 9 2014
Inaccess, a global provider of solar monitoring and control systems, today announced that it has successfully commissioned its solar power plant optimization solution, insolar, at a 2.4 MW solar power plant in Sarigua, a desert region in Panama's Herrera province.
Sarigua is the country's first grid-scale solar array and is owned by La Empresa de Generacion Electricita (EGESA), Panama's primary grid operator.
As Panama enriches its electricity production mix, Inaccess' insolar monitoring and control system will optimize plant performance and financial returns through a dense network of monitors, sensors and controls providing real time data, fault detection and analysis. The system will monitor performance of the plant's hardware including panels, strings, inverters and fuses as well as integrate information from Panama's grid to optimize for current or future market factors like demand and price. Panama, which is set to open its expanded Panama Canal next year, is a quickly growing market for solar taking its place as the world's value-added logistics hub.
Located nine miles from the city of Chitre, Sarigua was connected to the grid in March 2014. The utility-scale plant is now providing 30 percent of the surrounding area's electricity demand – equivalent to the power used by 2,600 local homes. Greenwood Biosar, a joint venture between Greenwood Energy and Biosar, provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for Sarigua, originally a project of Enel Green Power Panama. "The sophisticated monitoring solution provided by Inaccess will make it easier to identify underperformance or malfunction at the plant, allowing operators to intervene more quickly, saving money and ensuring financial health of the installation," said Greenwood Biosar CEO, Aris Polychronopoulos.
"We are proud of having contributed to a solar "first" for Panama. We are honored to support the international expansion of strategic partners like Greenwood Biosar by leveraging Inaccess' ability to tailor our monitoring solutions to address specific requirements of diverse geographic markets," said Inaccess CEO, Christos Georgopoulos.