Gexpro Gets Hawaiian Utility Approval on Energy Storage

July 1, 2016
With the certification in place, Hawaiian Electric customers will be able to interconnect commercial solar PV systems using Gexpro’s battery energy storage solution to the Hawaiian Electric grid.

Electrical distributor Gexpro, part of Rexel, is ready to sell its new Power IQ 30 battery energy storage solution in the Hawaii market after gaining approval from Hawaiian Electric Co. for the system’s use in customer grid and self-supply distributed resource programs. With the certification in place, Hawaiian Electric customers will be able to interconnect commercial solar PV systems using Gexpro’s battery energy storage solution to the Hawaiian Electric grid.

Gexpro has locations in Honolulu and Hilo, which will sell and support the new system in that market. Power IQ 30 is a modular energy storage system that combines software and top-level controls from Geli, Ideal Power’s 30kW Multi-port Power Conversion System (30B3-4DF) and lithium-ion batteries from LG Chem. The system can store excess energy from solar PV systems for self-consumption, preventing any export of power to the utility grid (a component of the customer self-supply regulations). Due to the state’s curtailment of net metering for solar PV, the ability for customers to store solar energy and use it during periods of low generation is a key value of solar-plus-storage in this market as increased solar self-consumption improves payback periods for PV systems, Gexpro said in a release.