A 140-MW DC photovoltaic system is planned for Kingston, Ontario, which will be the largest solar project in Canada when complete next year. The project will use SMA’s operations and maintenance (O&M) services and central inverters. SMA Service will assume operational management of the Kingston Solar project upon commercial operation, and for the next decade. Later this year, SMA will begin delivery of the 125 Sunny Central 800CP-US inverters that will power the system.
Last year, SMA was also selected to provide long-term O&M services and central inverters for the 130 MW DC Grand Renewable Solar project in Haldimand County, Ontario.
“SMA has always been known as the world’s solar technology leader, but projects like Kingston Solar and Grand Renewable Solar are solidifying SMA’s position as the number one O&M and utility-solutions provider in North America,” said Henry Dziuba, president of SMA Canada. “We are proud to be selected to power and maintain Canada’s two largest PV systems.”
Plant-wide O&M services were added to SMA’s top-ranked service portfolio last year. Available in three plans—Preventative, Proactive and Performance—SMA O&M provides comprehensive services, which increase performance ratios, protect power production and simplify long-term planning. In addition to these plans, SMA offers individual services that can be integrated in a flexible fashion, resulting in a highly customized O&M solution. Project owner Kingston Solar LP selected the Proactive plan with additional support services and extended warranties.
“We were highly focused on selecting an O&M provider who we felt had the experience and capacity to maximize uptime and minimize any potential maintenance issues for a project of Kingston Solar’s scale,” said Matt O’Brien, president of Kingston Solar LP, the project’s owner. “We believe SMA has both the technical and management expertise to deliver this investment-grade O&M service.”
The Sunny Central CP-US line of inverters offers class-leading 98.7 percent efficiencies and SMA’s intelligent temperature management system, OptiCool, which enables outdoor operation in a variety of challenging climates. The Sunny Central CP-US line also provides leading grid management functions to address utility requirements.
CarbonFree Technology will provide construction management services. Canadian Solar will provide PV modules for the project while Canadian Solar Solutions will be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project, and will work together with subcontractor H.B. White Canada Corp. Construction will begin very soon and is scheduled to be completed by late 2015.