Merit Controls, provider of grid integration products and services for utility-scale renewable energy power plants, announced a new rapid-response Power Plant Controls (PPC) platform that can enable solar plant owners to generate additional revenue from lucrative ancillary markets, maintain more stable operations and comply with national and regional grid requirements.

Historically fast-ramping fossil fuel power plants, and more recently battery energy storage systems (BESS), have been the dominant supply sources for ancillary services markets. The flexible capacity of these resources help to maintain secure operation of the grid, balancing generation fluctuations and real-time load. With increased response speed, solar plant owners who have not traditionally been able to participate now have the potential to meet the performance requirements of ancillary services markets with Merit Controls’ new rapid response PPC.

“Our renewables-dominated grid, inherently challenging given the intermittency of wind and solar, requires responsive capacity in the form of ancillary services to maintain grid stability and reliability. Our sophisticated PPC technology is designed to manage all types of ancillary services, particularly fast frequency response,” said Tom Kuster, CEO of Merit Controls. “This new offering marks another milestone in our strategy to deliver transformative technology that reduces greenhouse gases and decarbonizes the global economy.”

News item from Merit Controls