1.3 MWh Poultry Farm Energy Storage
After months of work: evaluating the farm's energy consumption from the grid, and then designing and building a containerized battery-based power system – it was finally time to demonstrate the resilience of the Puiul Dobrogean poultry farm's 180 kVA private power plant by shutting off the grid when the power consumption was 141 kW! Nothing happened. In a good way. The load was switched to the battery-based power plant without a single flicker!
The Problem with Traditional Backup
The Romanian poultry farm consumes 1.5 MWh of energy per day at the height of summer and relied on two backup generators to bridge grid outages, but when one of the generators failed to start, jeopardizing the livestock, it became clear that there was a vulnerability that could not be tolerated.
Financial Investment Instead of Expenses
Ionel Dobre – owner of the Puiul Dobrogean farm – started his business in 2012 and has constantly expanded it. For him, this realization of energy instability brought an opportunity – to make a financial investment to drastically reduce energy costs while ensuring energy security. The new installation is expected to cover between 93% and 95% of the farm's energy consumption.
Ovidiu Stan — CEO of Stoneage Energy, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, wanted to implement a technical solution that would efficiently charge this massive battery across all seasons, not just in summer. Based on the results Stoneage Energy had achieved with previous large installations, they decided to increase the battery charging capacity by adding 12 MPPT solar charge controllers to the 12 Quattro inverter/chargers, providing an additional 1200 amps of charging capacity.
Hybrid System Composition
Over 1.3 MWh in 48-volt LiFePO4 batteries (low voltage). Low voltage was chosen for safety reasons and because it allowed the use of the most reliable inverters available.
12 Quattro 15000VA inverter/chargers – capable of delivering 180 kVA and handling peak loads – the 15000 models can actually handle peak loads of 25000 W.
A hybrid ecosystem using Fronius Tauro 100 inverters providing 300 kW (AC coupled) for direct daytime consumption and 12 SmartSolar MPPT 250/100 solar charge controllers = 1200 amps (DC coupled) for efficient and direct battery bank charging.
Over 600 bifacial panels of 645 W (510 pcs on 3 Tauros + 96 pcs on 12 MPPTs) offering a total of ≈ 400 kWp.
Cerbo GX and VRM Portal.
The facility's electrical grid was designed as an underground loop. In the event of an accidental cable break (e.g., by an excavator), power is supplied through the other branch of the loop, ensuring 100% continuity.
AI-based Automation with Node-RED:
Developments by Stoneage Energy Engineers
The system includes several innovations developed by Stoneage Energy engineers specifically for large projects like this, including:
A massive pre-charging and emergency shutdown system controlled by proprietary software for controlling and monitoring over 100 parameters of the entire system.
Fast shutdown and pre-charging: To completely shut down the system in the unlikely event of any fault.
Dynamic Power Balancing: For large systems when solar energy production is low and/or the grid is weak or unstable.
Battery protection mode: maintains a useful power reserve in case of a power outage or a low forecast for electricity generation the next day, taking into account grid electricity consumption and cost.
