The Egypt Petroleum Show is North Africa and the Mediterranean’s leading oil, gas and energy exhibition and conference where oil and gas professionals convene to engage in dialogue, create partnerships, do business and identify solutions and strategies that will reshape the global energy markets.
EGYPS 2023 will take place from 13-15 February 2023 in Cairo at the Egypt International Exhibition Center
TSS solar systems in combination with Saft batteries are providing ultimate and uninterrupted reliability for Pertamina’s unmanned GG-platform. Proven performance for 7 years and counting.
Saft solar nickel battery system delivers reliability and cost efficiency for Pertamina offshore gas platform. Solar system integrator TSS4U selected Saft Sunica+ nickel batteries for their high quality, reliability, high temperature capability and expert support in Indonesia.
De uitrol van zonnepanelen draait in coronatijd volop door, zowel in de residentiële als de zakelijke markt. Het gebruik van batterijen komt sterk op, in Vlaanderen in de vorm van de thuisbatterij en in Nederland in die van grootschalige opslagsystemen. Dit is echter niet de wereld van TSS4U. Het levert offgrid solar en solar hybride-systemen, met name voor offshore en onshore olie- en gasinstallaties. Die markt kent zijn eigen wetten, zowel wat betreft conjunctuur als technologische vereisten.
TSS4U heeft zijn roots in het voormalige Shell Solar in Helmond. Chief operational officer en mede-eigenaar Jan-Willem Linsen werkte er eerst aan netgekoppelde, daarna aan autonome industriële zonne-energiesystemen. Na de overname van Siemens Solar in 2001 zette het bedrijf een punt achter de productie van zonnepanelen in Nederland.
2 jaar later werden de offgrid-activiteiten overgeheveld naar München. Linsen en enkele van zijn collega’s besloten uit te stappen en richtten TSS4U op.
With the TSS infinitum control box and the TSS infinitum TCO software tool various diesel hybrid and solar only solutions can be provided. In below table we show the various cost and CO2 reductions you can achieve.
The TCO calculation TSS provide is taking into account the cost for maintenance and fuel. Transport of diesel and maintenance crew is not taking into account as this is depending on the location where the system will be installed. Each location requires a different solution resulting in a project specific TCO as shown right side.
With the increasing demand for Internet access and mobile services globally, telecom operators need to bring connectivity to remote and rural areas without a grid connection. The infinitum modular hybrid solution combines solar and any other (renewable) energy source along with energy storage batteries, such as any diesel generator or fuel cell.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) are the two most common techniques used in off-grid solar charge controllers to charge batteries from a photovoltaic (PV) array. Both technologies have been widely used in the off-grid solar industry and both are great options for charging your battery. The choice of PWM or MPPT regulation is not merely based on which charging method is “better” than the other. Rather, it encompasses the determination of which type of controller will work best in a specific system design.
A PWM charge controller is a switch which connects the PV module to the battery. When in PWM regulation, the current from the PV array tapers according to the battery’s status and recharging needs. When the switch is closed, the PV module and battery will be at nearly the same voltage and the PV module operational voltage is given by the following formula:
Since the PV modules operate at the same voltage window (battery voltage), rather than a higher watt peak rating, it is more important for a PV module to be able to produce more current at the battery voltage window when used with a PWM controller.
A MPPT algorithm-based charge controller sweeps the I-V curve of the PV module to pin-point the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of the PV module in all conditions. The power conversion is done with a DC-DC converter that converts the higher DC voltage from PV modules to a lower voltage required to charge the batteries:
An often forgotten aspect of PV modules is the change of parameters at different temperatures. Let us consider two scenarios of PV module temperature by maintaining the type of PV module and irradiance as constant.
From the above figure, it can be noticed that at a PV voltage of 30.2V, the PV power output has reduced slightly to 322.4W in a PWM based system, only 0.9% reduction compared to STC. The maximum power that can be extracted by a MPPT based system is 328.8W, a reduction of 8.8% compared to STC. Reducing the difference in power output to only 1.9%.
Hence, at the actual temperatures a PV module will operate, the advantages of the MPPT over a PWM becomes negligible as the power output from a PWM based system is very close to that for an MPPT based system.
In essence, with a PWM system the MPP is not actively tracked, but MPP operation is obtained by matching the module voltage to the system voltage. This can be achieved by using TSS PWM optimized PV modules. The combination of a TSS PWM charge controller and TSS PWM optimized PV modules provides a passive MPP operation which we call the TSS passive MPPT charge control and is provided in our solid solar only solutions.
Space Constraint
As seen in the earlier section, at lower temperatures, the MPPT controller can extract the same power as PWM from a lower number of PV modules. This leads to slightly lower number of PV modules for a MPPT system. To partly overcome this challenge, TSS uses PWM system optimized PV modules in order to extract the maximum power out of the PV system at any given ambient temperature.
Ease of system sizing
MPPT is the more advanced style charge controller as they will sweep the I-V curve throughout the day to maximize the energy harvest from PV array. Consequently, sizing MPPT based charge controllers is more complex as there are many considerations to take into account in comparison to a straightforward PWM based system sizing.
Controller de-rating with temperature
An overlooked fact is often that all equipment is installed inside enclosures where operational temperature will be higher than the ambient temperature. This difference can be up to 20°C to 30°C and additionally controller efficiency comes into play.
With a typical efficiency of a MPPT controller being 97%, its’ dissipated power will have a large effect on the enclosure temperature. Additionally, the complex electronics will demand a power derating at higher temperatures. Risking not being able to extract enough energy to supply the load and also charge the battery.
The TSS PWM Controller on the other hand has an outstanding efficiency of 99.97%. This keeps the enclosure temperature at a lower level compared to MPPT. Besides this a PWM controller does not demand for derating at higher temperatures.
Reliability
A MPPT based system consists of more complex electronic DC-DC converter circuits to cater the MPP tracking. A PWM controller is of a way less complicated nature. It only has to switch the PV modules on and off, making it a more reliable solution.
System cost
From a costing point of view, Solar Energy Systems are implemented in two main climates:
It can be concluded that the choice for a TSS Passive MPPT based system or an Active MPPT based system lies in the smart interplay between the various factors that need to be incorporated while designing a specific system. At TSS, we believe the choice for a TSS passive MPPT solution is still the best solution for remote industrial environments, since it provides the highest reliability and energy security. All at the same or lesser cost.
TSS the world’s most trusted builder of fully integrated and optimized pure solar and solar hybrid energy solutions for remote telecom sites successfully established presence in Africa with a new office in Nairobi, Kenya.
TSS was founded in 2003 by former management of Shell Solar. The company is headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and has additional offices in Abu Dhabi UAE for the Middle East Market and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Asia Pacific market. We equally work with numerous partners in Europe, Asia and Africa.
With over 25 years of in-depth experience in off-grid systems, and having successfully serviced the high standard oil and gas industry and deployed over 1,500 solar and hybrid systems across Africa, South East Asia, Middle East and Europe, it was time for TSS to have a footprint in Africa.
As a result, TSS expanded its sales organization and Kenya is one of the highly suitable locations to cater for our African target market where we are experiencing a rapidly growing interest in our solutions.
Kenya’s location allows easy access to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa and facilitates TSS to respond faster to customer support requests, and more efficiently support our partners.
There are thousands of telecom sites without reliable grid connection which translates into huge energy costs for operators.
TowerXchange, the independent community for operators, towercos, investors and suppliers has also forecasted that the volume of new build sites will be the highest in Africa with Countries, MNOs and Towercos making significant investment in cell site energy, and rural electrification with sustainable, environmentally friendly solar solutions.
TSS solutions has developed and perfected to solve exactly the kind of infrastructure challenges that operators are facing in emerging markets like Africa and addressing key concerns like grid availability, reliability, future energy requirements and expansion and how to cost efficiently power both existing and new sites in rural areas.
Esther and the team in Kenya will be collaborating with local partners in the Sub-Saharan region who have teams in place for installation, operations and maintenance.
In the past 30 years many large Oil & Gas companies started an off-grid solar department providing their own off-grid Solar System Solutions including their in-house developed charge control equipment. Many solar systems are now in use as the main energy supplier for vital equipment like Telecom, RTU, Wellhead control, valves, etc. Failure of the energy supply will result in high operational cost.
At TSS, we have seen many companies like Shell Solar, BP Solar, Total Energy/Tenesol stopping their off-grid solar activities resulting in clients not being able to maintain their current install base and to get spare parts or technical support for their Solar Power Systems. This has resulted in high downtime and high operation cost for these clients. TSS has been requested by many clients to help them in providing System Health Checks and spare parts for those systems for more than 10 years.
During the System Health Check our engineers provide you a report on the status of your system and which (preventive) maintenance should be carried out in order to revitalize these systems.
In order to be able to help these clients TSS has developed tailor made solutions by providing compatible new charge controllers which could replace the existing control equipment without the need of revising the whole system and including the system specific metering and alarms. Due to this we could provide a solution to our clients to keep their solar system running for the next 10 years or more without the need for a high investment for purchasing a complete new solar power system.
We would be happy to provide a similar tailor made solution for your off-grid solar systems that are currently failing due to the lack of spare parts or technical support from the manufacturer.
TSS4U Management Team
TSS’ expertise is in the development of equipment that can be placed in very hot climatic conditions. The presence of electronic equipment in such hot conditions generally leads to the problem of overheating which can result in inefficient functioning or even a complete failure of the system.
To tackle and alleviate the hitches and inefficiencies that arise as a result of heat, engineers generally employ different cooling systems for forcing a good thermal management. This is normally achieved by the use of fans which don’t have a long lifetime expectancy.
Innovative design combined with the right selection of components make sure our electronic equipment is highly energy efficient and as a result have only little heat dissipation and don’t require forced cooling by fans.
Furthermore, our specially designed electronic components have in-built heat spreading capabilities which help to spread the heat from hotspots by natural convection within the enclosure.
These intrinsically cooled components ensure that the control equipment inside enclosures are heated up only in a controlled manner up to a maximum of 85°C! Thus, redundancy for temperature dependent failure in tropical environments are secured.
Such an efficiently designed control equipment can simply be used in the shade externally without any form of forced cooling (e.g. under solar modules). Even if the ambient temperature in the shade goes up to 55°C, the equipment continues to function perfectly without the need for any external cooling and without any de-rating.
SerEnergy:
SerEnergy was founded in 2006, and is today a world-leading developer and supplier of methanol-based fuel cell solutions based out of Denmark. Since its foundation, the company
has deployed more than 1,000 active units globally with telecom as a prime market but serves also other industry segments and delivers for utility applications. SerEnergy is headquartered in Denmark, has an international customer base, partners worldwide, and offices in India and the Philippines. Also, SerEnergy is part of the German based Fischer Group.
sales@serenergy.com – Phone: +45 88 80 70 40
TSS4U:
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in The Netherlands, TSS has extensive experience designing and delivering reliable and high performance tailor made solar power solutions for about 1,500 sites. Some of the unique applications include extreme heat, explosion proof, wet offshore conditions, off-grid, standalone, hybrid solar power, and for remote locations which makes them the world’s most trusted off-grid solar hybrid solution provider.
info@tss4u.com – Phone: +31 40 235 1702
