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ORPC and Schneider Electric join forces for marine energy microgrids

Schneider Electric and Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on microgrid projects and advance marine energy as a commercially-viable renewable energy source.

Through this collaboration, ORPC and Schneider Electric intend to install microgrid systems that include Schneider Electric’s energy storage and smart microgrid controllers integrated with ORPC’s RivGen power systems.

The plan is to provide communities worldwide with highly predictable baseload electricity in renewable energy form, enabling the global transition towards net-zero societies.

Bala Vinayagam, SVP microgrid line of business from Schneider Electric, said: “The ability to provide exciting, cutting-edge, sustainable solutions, like ORPC’s RivGen power system, works as part of a portfolio of microgrid systems for our customers. It paves the way to establish marine energy as a commercially viable solution in the renewable energy mix.

“The path to net zero includes many forms of decarbonization and having microgrid systems with ORPC’s technology only widens the impact on what our solutions can provide.”

Schneider Electric and ORPC are already working on implementing this solution in partnership with the remote, tribal community of Igiugig in Alaska.

When this project is completed in the summer of 2023, the integrated system will form the grid for the community, moving the existing diesel generators to back-up and enabling the village to operate without diesel for between 60% and 90% of the time.

Schneider Electric supplied Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) with EcoStruxure Microgrid Operation to enable use of the RivGen power system for diesel reduction. This is achieved by leveraging the grid forming capability of the Schneider Electric BESS.

ORPC added it already received inbound interest in its power systems from over 40 countries.

Alexandre Paris, senior vice president and COO at ORPC, said: “The combination of ORPC’s RivGen power system and Schneider Electric’s energy storage and smart microgrid controller can serve as a powerful tool to address climate change.

“For communities already using diesel generators, this system can provide a baseload energy solution and replacement for existing systems. Developing economies can build out their electricity networks economically without using expensive, centralized grids reliant on fossil fuels.”

To remind, ORPC deployed its first RivGen hydrokinetic power system in Canada, through its subsidiary ORPC Canada, at Seven Sisters Falls in Manitoba, in partnership with the Canadian Hydrokinetic Turbine Test Centre (CHTTC).

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