Introduction, page-25

Hi!

We call it the "LSB" these days (same thing, different three-letter-acronym) - Large Storage Battery

The Base64 install has been a fantastic learning experience for us in general and me in particular.

We deployed it first some time ago now, prior to having got so deeply experienced with using the Victron Energy inverter/charger systems. We (base64) bought a big proprietary inverter that didn't come with any sort of monitoring or logging system and no control system to drive it to interact properly with on-site solar (All of this control system stuff comes 'out of the box' with the Victron Energy CCGX controller unit so I imagined 'everyone' provided such things). Well, I was wrong about that. Nothing but a programming manual and some head-scratching about 'now what?' - for some reason industrial scale systems are in the dark ages in terms of the stuff that Victron (and others) have 'nailed' for the residential/SOHO battery market - great, easy to use, easy to understand, out-of-the-box energy system control software and systems.

Meantime, we were exercising our large battery 'manually' - charging and discharging it happily on a timed basis to prove it worked - but we were unable to run it in a manner that properly integrated it with the building energy use, for the lack of that control system. And we didn't want to write one from scratch just for us - that'd be a bit mad.

In parallel, and importantly - we also took ages and ages to actually get on-site solar operating at Base64 - and there wasn't much point in driving the unit until we did have a decent amount of on-site solar to charge it with.

To the latter point - a long story, but the gist is that its a heritage listed building and I was unable to get permission to mount solar on the massive north-facing roof of the main building. So instead we commissioned a rather innovative mounting system that has (at last - several weeks ago, now) let us complete the installation of a big solar array that literally 'floats' above our staff car park on four big mount poles supporting what we call 'trees' - suspended metal arrays holding the solar panels up. That nifty system was one we commissioned and imported from California and the process of commissioning that, importing it, and getting it mounted all took a (lot) longer than I'd hoped. The result, however, is (in my humble opinion) quite spectacular. We (now! at last!) have a total of around 70kWp of solar on the site, which is enough for the site needs.

In the process, we also decided to pull the LSB apart and rebuild it using Victron Energy products and control systems, so that we could - once we've done that - get a fantastic result in terms of optimal use of the solar energy to drive the building, charge the batteries, and support the building load at night - the very same stuff we do in houses with our batteries, just on a big scale - and without facing a one-off software development exercise for the old proprietary inverter system we had been using.

Swapping the Victron gear in has turned out far cheaper than the bespoke software exercise would have been (and faster, and a better result). I also think its also more sensible in general because it'll turn the Base64 deployment into a signature example of a large scale Victron Energy deployment running a decently sized multiple building site - and that, in turn, may inspire more of the global Victron Energy installation community to consider our product at this sort of scale.

So - right now - in summary - its actually in pieces, being rebuilt with Victron hardware

That process is now well advanced, and once we've finished that, we will (at last!) be able to commission it and then (for the first time) start to publish the operating outcomes of the system via the Victron portal system - so you'll be able to see how it works.

I am intending to write a blog post about the system on my blog site (http://www.simonhackett.com) once we have got it cranked up again. No guarantees on the timing, but I right now it looks like maybe 5-6 weeks to finish getting it all back together and to start to commission it - we have the bits, just doing the lego exercise of assembling them again at this point.

So - a short question with a long answer, but the outcome should, at last, be a fantastic demonstration of what we've learned about how best to drive our products - at scale - with a big solar array.

I'm looking forward to posting nice photos of it all when its done. It looks very impressive (at least, it does to me - but perhaps I'm easily impressed ).