VAN NUYS, CALIF.—Capstone Green Energy Corporation, a global leader in carbon reduction and on-site resilient green Energy as a Service (EaaS) solutions, announced that their C65 and C200 inverters have received certification for California Rule 21 tariff requirements. The certification builds upon Capstone’s previous successes with UL1741 SA and prepares inverters for meeting the new UL1741 Supplement B.
“Our Capstone engineering team works continuously to stay ahead of the growing number of new global grid interconnect requirements and standards,” stated Darren Jamison, President and CEO of Capstone. “Country specific standards continue to evolve, and while they are starting to adopt similar standards in certain areas, they are different enough to require detailed software changes and extensive testing in our state-of-the-art grid simulation lab.”
The controller integrated solution includes a gateway module that facilitates two-way utility connections for remote monitoring, as well as dispatching updated settings for inverter output response. The gateway acts as a communications protocol converter, allowing a utility connection based on IEEE 2030.5 and the Sunspec Common Smart Inverter Profile (CSIP) to read and write data using the proprietary Capstone protocol integrated into the microturbine Smart Inverters. The gateway is also certified as a standalone device if a full feature controller is not required.
Result of Cross-Departmental Collaboration
“Staying current on the evolving global grid interconnect standards is no small task,” said Don Ayers, Vice President of Technology. “In the case of the Rule 21 certification, we utilized combined resources within the company to ensure that we could complete this project, while continuing to make progress on other challenging grid interconnect projects, particularly for the German market. The success of this project was truly the result of cross-departmental collaboration, along with maintaining close relationships with our external partners.”
At the turn of the century, traditional grid standards were still primarily focused on ensuring the safe adoption of power generation equipment. However, as photovoltaic (PV) and wind generation accelerated in Germany in the 2000’s, these standards evolved to guide the impact of inverters on grid integrity. The evolution of grid standards has expanded to every country, including the United States, Italy, Australia, and Great Britain, where standards have been developed to meet unique grid infrastructure needs. More recently, these standards continue to advance with the adoption of utility monitoring and control of distributed generating assets, such as Rule 21.
“While we have a small team dedicated to certification and surveillance, we have been able to partner with different Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTLs) to stay on top of constantly evolving grid requirements that are promulgated,” said Victor Kong, Director of Product Engineering at Capstone Green Energy. “Ultimately, Capstone can meet these standards for the majority of customer sites, which only involves a quick software update with minimal downtime and no hardware changes.”
