TECO Forges Smart City in March Towards the Virtual Power Plant Era
Under the theme of "march towards the virtual power plant era in forging sustainable smart city," TECO Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd. will exhibit various power-related management platform, solutions, and energy-conserving equipment during 2024 Smart City Summit and Expo opening today (March 19).
Sophia Chiu, TECO Group chairman, points out that given the trend of energy transformation and renewable-energy power generation, virtual power plant will be a solution stabilizing power supply and raising power-consumption efficiency. Consequently, in recent years TECO has spared no effort investing in renewable energy and energy-storage system engineering and management platform, helping customers cope with rising power rates and demand response contracts with Taiwan Power Company and plan demand management, so as to create economic value and forge sustainable smart city, according to Chiu.
In addition to increase of customers' power-consumption economic value, TECO's exhibition also highlights contribution to grid resilience, thereby attaining a win-win outcome for supplier and customers. For instance, after signing regular supply-capacity contracts with Taipower, operators of commercial buildings or factories with heavy peak-period power consumption can access the services of TECO's power aggregation service platform, including energy maneuvering management, surrogate operation and monitoring of contract capacity, analysis of power-consumption behavior, and power-load forecast, in order to avoid over capacity power consumption.
After engagement in Taipower's automated demand response service, drugstores and offices featuring fixed business can employ TECO's hybrid PV power air conditioning capable of maneuvering power supply sources, to double power-bill saving. In addition, TECO's smart energy-conserving health diagnosis solution for air-conditioning system can help customers with power-saving management, thereby attaining cost saving and carbon abatement.
TECO power aggregation service platform
TECO power aggregation service platform, developed by the company's general laboratory, offers six major services, namely energy maneuvering management, power-consumption behavior analysis, power-consumption load management, time power-rate management, over contract capacity management, and surrogate power trading, carrying out power maneuvering with information communication technology, so as to avoid power shortfall and cut power cost, boosting profits. TECO presents three scenarios to manifest the function of the platform in trouble shooting and problem solving:
1. Filling power shortfall with renewable energy: TECO can plan scheduling for demand response contractors, helping them tap PV power to fill power shortfall.
2. Energy storage system corresponds to Taipower demand response and time power rate: Charging energy storage batteries with solar energy during sunny daytime for discharging during contracted demand time or power-consumption peak period.
3. Power forecast: With forecast of an upcoming cloudy day, schedule battery charging during off period and/or sunny daytime for peak-time power consumption or meeting contract needs.
PV power station operation and maintenance/energy-storage system EMS platform/industrial and business energy-storage system
In the wake of the establishment of the creative and storage business development department in 2023, TECO has spared no effort investing in the installation and operation/maintenance of PV power stations and energy storage systems, with accumulated capacities of energy-storage systems and PV power stations having topped 100 MW and 20 MW, respectively. In collaboration with a major international firm, it is building a combination PV power station and energy storage system, one of first such facilities in Taiwan. In 2024, it has rolled out integrated industrial and business energy storage system with 100 KW/215 kWh in capacity, capable of cutting peak-time power-consumption load and offering emergency power supply in case of power outage, thereby lowering demand for utility power and materializing power-rate management.
Mixed PV-power air conditioning/smart health diagnosis solution for air conditioning system
The company's air conditioning and smart life business group has unveiled hybrid air conditioner "Solar Hybrid HVAC," equipped with new high-efficiency direct-current MPPT driver, suiting wide voltage DC power supply, without the need of PV inverter, and skipping second power-source conversion and maintenance cost. Hybrid PV power air conditioner enables alternating usage of utility power and PV power, thereby cutting grid power bills. The company's smart air-conditioning energy conservation diagnosis solution boasts one-stop energy-conservation service and magnetic-levitation chiller is capable of over 42% energy saving, facilitating subsidy approval.
TECO's various demand response load management solutions and monitoring service platform offer power customers "time power rate management," "over capacity management," and "power bill economic management," thereby boosting power power-consumption efficiency and maximizing profits, on top of optimized power-consumption quality and contribution to grid resilience, thereby conforming to earth sustainability.