The technology group Wärtsilä will supply two 10 MW energy storage systems under an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract to Caribbean Utilities Company in the Cayman Islands. This project, which will be CUC’s first energy storage facilities, will enable the utility to approximately double its renewable energy capacity on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands. The new energy storage facilities will allow CUC to operate its generating assets in a more efficient manner reducing fuel costs to electricity consumers. Additionally, the energy storage systems will facilitate up to a total of approximately 29 MW of distributed customer-sited renewable energy resources without causing instability to the grid. Like many island grids, Grand Cayman’s power system is isolated from grid-tied electricity, and susceptible to unplanned changes in generation output. Until now, the network connected electricity generation sources on Grand Cayman comprised 161 MW of diesel fuelled generation and approximately 14 MW of solar photovoltaic generation. The energy storage systems will be connected to the Hydesville, West Bay and Prospect substations, which will provide extensive power system optimisation capabilities - from spinning reserve capacity to improved frequency response, and to enhanced grid stability, while also saving CUC on fuel costs. Each facility will include Wärtsilä’s GridSolv Quantum, a fully integrated, modular and compact energy storage system, as well as the GEMS Digital Energy Platform, Wärtsilä’s sophisticated energy management system. The GEMS platform will provide several advantages to islanded systems which have until now been rare for even big grids. These include amongst other things: short term overload capacity, voltage support, black starts and peak shaving. As such, this project will showcase the full capabilities of GEMS. Caribbean Utilities Company is a privately owned electricity generation, transmission and distribution utility which owns an installed generating capacity of 161 MW. It is the only electric utility in Grand Cayman, the largest island of the Cayman Islands, with a population of approximately 65,000 mostly residing in Grand Cayman.
The technology group Wärtsilä will supply two 10 MW energy storage systems under an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract to Caribbean Utilities Company in the Cayman Islands. This project, which will be CUC’s first energy storage facilities, will enable the utility to approximately double its renewable energy capacity on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands. The new energy storage facilities will allow CUC to operate its generating assets in a more efficient manner reducing fuel costs to electricity consumers. Additionally, the energy storage systems will facilitate up to a total of approximately 29 MW of distributed customer-sited renewable energy resources without causing instability to the grid. Like many island grids, Grand Cayman’s power system is isolated from grid-tied electricity, and susceptible to unplanned changes in generation output. Until now, the network connected electricity generation sources on Grand Cayman comprised 161 MW of diesel fuelled generation and approximately 14 MW of solar photovoltaic generation. The energy storage systems will be connected to the Hydesville, West Bay and Prospect substations, which will provide extensive power system optimisation capabilities - from spinning reserve capacity to improved frequency response, and to enhanced grid stability, while also saving CUC on fuel costs. Each facility will include Wärtsilä’s GridSolv Quantum, a fully integrated, modular and compact energy storage system, as well as the GEMS Digital Energy Platform, Wärtsilä’s sophisticated energy management system. The GEMS platform will provide several advantages to islanded systems which have until now been rare for even big grids. These include amongst other things: short term overload capacity, voltage support, black starts and peak shaving. As such, this project will showcase the full capabilities of GEMS. Caribbean Utilities Company is a privately owned electricity generation, transmission and distribution utility which owns an installed generating capacity of 161 MW. It is the only electric utility in Grand Cayman, the largest island of the Cayman Islands, with a population of approximately 65,000 mostly residing in Grand Cayman.
