Full Name
Stephen Sproul
Job title
Head Of Technical Sales - Power Conversion Solutions
Organisation
Hitachi Energy
Speaker bio
Stephen is a Chartered Engineer with nearly 15 years’ experience working for utilities, consultancies, industry bodies and OEMs in Australia, the US and Europe. Throughout his career he has focused on integrating renewable energy into the world’s power systems through technical solutions and new regulatory and market frameworks.
In 2020 he was Engineer’s Australia, emerging professional engineer of the year for Queensland and is a previous ES Cornwall scholar. His project experience includes the first large scale grid forming battery system at Dalrymple in South Australia, and he aspires to leave Australia’s power system 100% renewable in his working life.
In 2020 he was Engineer’s Australia, emerging professional engineer of the year for Queensland and is a previous ES Cornwall scholar. His project experience includes the first large scale grid forming battery system at Dalrymple in South Australia, and he aspires to leave Australia’s power system 100% renewable in his working life.
Speaking At
Large-scale solar and storage hybrid project design
Grid-forming inverters: Application at the transmission level
Grid-forming inverters: Application at the transmission level
Presentation title
Grid forming, hybrid, DC-coupled solar and storage - capabilities and pitfalls
Presentation summary
Australia leads the world in many aspects of the transition to low emissions power systems. Hybrid, DC-coupled solar and BESS projects however have been more prevalent in other markets until recently. While lessons from other markets can assist this new trend, Australia's unique grid connection requirements bring new challenges for this technology, particularly in trying to support greater grid stability through grid forming operation.
This talk will give an overview of DC-coupling, why it is important, benefits and limitations and in particular, how grid forming DC-coupled systems can be implemented with insights from one of the only grid-forming DC-coupled projects in commercial operation currently, in Hawaii.
This will be important for developers and industry to navigate this emerging technology, select the appropriate arrangement for the technical and commercial drivers of their project and also highlight what is possible from this technology to futureproof the grid stability of Australia's future, high renewable power system.
This talk will give an overview of DC-coupling, why it is important, benefits and limitations and in particular, how grid forming DC-coupled systems can be implemented with insights from one of the only grid-forming DC-coupled projects in commercial operation currently, in Hawaii.
This will be important for developers and industry to navigate this emerging technology, select the appropriate arrangement for the technical and commercial drivers of their project and also highlight what is possible from this technology to futureproof the grid stability of Australia's future, high renewable power system.
