EPS: New Microgrid System in Flinders Island, Tasmania

PARIS and MILAN, February 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Electro Power Systems S.A. ("EPS"), a technology pioneer in energy-storage systems and microgrids listed on the French-regulated market Euronext Paris (EPS:FP), announces the commissioning of the new system microgrid connected in Flinders Island, northeast of Tasmania, will start in Q1 2017.

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EPS, in partnership with Toshiba, realized a hybrid storage system sired to Flinders Island's microgrid for Hydro Tasmania, Australia's largest producer of renewable energy. The utility is developing the "Flinders Island Hybrid Energy Hub" project that aims to increase the use of renewable energy on the island and dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels, which so far have been the only electrical energy source on the island.

The project, thanks to the EPS system, which combines renewables and energy storage, is intended to provide up to 65% of the island's annual energy demand, significantly reducing CO₂ emissions and the consumption of diesel fuel by more than 60%.

The microgrid has an installed capacity of 3MW that will provide, despite the critical weather conditions to which the island is exposed, stable renewable energy to approximately 900 people and it will be hybridized with 0.5 MWp of solar and 0.5 MWh of storage system manufactured by EPS, combined with 2.0 MVA of generators. The project does also contemplate the integration with wind energy.

With the assistance of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Tasmanian Government, the project was developed along the lines of the successful "King Island Renewable Energy IntegrationProject(KIREIP)", which covers 100% of King Island's power needs from renewable sources.