SGS connects UK’s winds and tides

Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) plans to use its technology to enable a shared grid connection of the MeyGen tidal array and Lochend wind farm in Scotland.

The Scottish-based technology company SGS will provide its ANM Element product for the behind-the-meter Active Network Management (ANM) scheme that will enable the connection of both projects to the grid.

Under the agreement, Wind Harvest’s four-turbine Lochend wind farm, based in Caithness in the Scottish Highlands, will be able to use MeyGen’s capacity while the tidal generators are not at full output.

SGS’s technology will be deployed behind-the-meter and will monitor both the tidal array and the wind farm, controlling the wind farm to keep both generators under the safe firm limit of the MeyGen’s agreed connection.

The agreement brings Lochend wind farm connection to the grid three years earlier than expected, SGS said.

The ANM Element technology solution is currently being deployed and is expected to be fully functional by May 2017.