Italy-based energy storage and energy management systems (EMS) provider PRAMAC has launched an ecosystem of integrated technologies designed to enable remote self-consumption in the country.  

Among the ecosystem’s key features, the company emphasizes that the virtual unification of multiple distributed PV plants on a single platform helps in reducing grid dependency by increasing self-consumption.  

Its architecture combines multiple location PV installations, featuring battery energy storage systems (BESS), a variety of control infrastructures, and PRAMAC’s EMS, to channel the energy generation to the same primary substation. The EMS, which PRAMAC calls ‘the core of the solution’, analyzes and manages the flow of energy between multiple production and consumption points in real-time. It enables C&I users to go beyond local self-consumption by drawing renewable energy (RE) from the ‘virtual energy network’. In addition to maximizing solar energy harvesting, it ensures stability of the system by maintaining power generation even in variable load or extreme weather conditions. The company added that it also supports plants with a variety of configurations.  

According to the company, this virtual system’s performance was validated at a pilot project in Trentino. It combines 5 individual PV plants into the same primary substation. This project also included a 20-foot containerized BESS with a rated AC power of up to 264 kW and a storage capacity of 1,066 kWh. The company claims the virtual ecosystem has achieved up to 30% higher self-consumed energy with respect to a standalone PV counterpart; however, the duration of the consumption was not shared. 

In addition, these projects can benefit from incentives offered by Italy’s electricity services operator, GSE, for up to 20 years. These incentives include 2 components – a Premium Tariff (TP) of up to €0.10/kWh and a Valorization Fee (CV). Together, it reimburses specific tariff components equivalent to consumers’ self-consumed energy, which might yield between €0.12/kWh and €0.16/kWh, added the company.