Hitachi Energy is building on a combined heritage of more than 240 years of innovation to achieve its purpose of advancing a sustainable energy future for all. With its evolution to Hitachi Energy in 2021, the global technology leader has effectively positioned its innovative technologies and services to reflect the rapidly evolving energy landscape and the opportunity to create economic, environmental, and social value. The company is a key industry partner with more than 45,000 employees globally, delivering significant customer value with a comprehensive portfolio addressing decarbonisation, electrification, and digitalisation.
Partner for the energy transition
With ambitious renewable targets for 2030 and net zero commitments for 2050, Australia’s energy system is undergoing a rapid transformation. Utilities and the future grid are critical for the net zero economy catering to the increasing demands for flexibility on both the supply and demand side.
For energy transmission and distribution companies, maintaining a reliable supply is key. For energy generators, profitability is reliant on an increasing number of factors in this energy “system of systems.”
According to Bernard Norton, country managing director of Hitachi Energy in Australia, Hitachi Energy is renowned for providing the most efficient, reliable, and robust grid connection hardware, along with comprehensive life-cycle support arrangements to keep uptime at a maximum, together with leading digitalisation solutions.
“The energy system today is undergoing a tremendous transformation,” Mr Norton said.
“Hitachi Energy is a key partner for utilities in building and managing the future grid. From cutting-edge power electronics, digital solutions, and sustainable products that enable greater flexibility, efficiency, and safety of the grid, we have an end-to-end solutions portfolio, which is critical for successfully managing the energy system of the future.”
Building a more dynamic and interconnected grid
Due to the vast geography, age, and design of the grid, Australia’s grid does not feature a lot of mesh. With the energy transition gathering pace, the energy system needs to be more interconnected and high-voltage direct current (HVDC), a technology Hitachi Energy pioneered over 70 years ago is one of the key enablers for bulk renewable energy resources integration and reliable interconnection across regions.
”In Australia, this technology is powering some of the country’s largest interconnectors. Marinus Link, a project of national significance, will use advanced converter technology at both ends of the link to stabilise and integrate more and more renewables into the power grid. The two-way power transmission technology will also unlock Tasmania’s world-class wind and hydro storage resources to deliver affordable and reliable clean energy for all Australians.”
Renewable generation in remote areas combined with rapidly changing urban landscapes, EV adoption, and industrial electrification is increasing the need for long transmission lines and powerful cross-border interconnections with minimal losses, together with energy storage and power quality solutions.
Mr Norton added, “Along with our partners, we continue to enhance the capacity, resilience, flexibility, efficiency, and reliability of the transmission network. Just to mention some recent examples of collaboration, such as with AusNet on the Golden Plains Wind Farm, Australia’s largest approved onshore wind project, where we supplied our power transformers and Transgrid’s QNI Interconnector – both strategic projects that will help the country facilitate the integration of renewables while strengthening voltage stability.”
Hitachi Energy’s transformers will play a critical role integrating renewable energy into the grid, including unlocking the potential of the Golden Plains Wind Farm project where AusNet will design, build and operate the transmission facilities.
Innovations for grid stability
Unique grid transformation challenges also arise from transitioning from coal to renewable energy generation. Ever more decentralised/edge-of-grid renewable energy plants need to connect to the grid. The retirement of large, centralised fossil-fuel power plants results in a lack of firming capacity and, with that, inherent instability in the power grid.
Due to more variable power flows, lower inertia and predictability, the need for increasingly controlled interconnection capacity, green energy corridors, directly feeding cities, is required to support the remote sustainable generation. Inertia is crucial to ensure overall grid stability.
To address these issues and the needs of a fast-evolving power system, Hitachi Energy recently launched Grid-enSure™ – a portfolio of fully integrated solutions that help to enhance grid flexibility, resilience, and stability to accelerate the sustainable energy transition.
The solutions combine Hitachi Energy’s existing and future power electronic solutions such as (HVDC), static compensators (STATCOM and Enhanced STATCOM), static frequency converters (SFC), medium-voltage direct current (MVDC), energy storage solutions and semiconductor technologies.
Hitachi Energy’s innovative SVC Light® STATCOM technology can help increase power transfer capacity, stabilise voltage and frequency, improve operational reliability and reduce the need to build new power plants.
The success of grid-forming inverters in combination with Virtual Synchronous Machine technology is evident in the number of grid-forming battery energy storage systems (BESS) connecting to the National Electricity Market (NEM) to avoid the system strength charge. Examples include Dalrymple, Darwin-Katherine and Waratah super batteries, together with a number of microgrid projects at the distribution level.
Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Voluntary Specification for Grid-forming Inverters and AEMO’s System Strength Impact Assessment Guidelines amendment consultation provided clarity and further incentives to deploy the technology.
The Waratah super battery project in NSW, using Hitachi Energy advanced converter technology, will raise the bar on grid reliability by delivering an impressive 850-megawatt/1,680-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system
Made in Australia power quality solutions
The grid of the future needs to be more sophisticated, resilient, and stable to cope with the increasing demands for flexibility on both the supply and demand side.
Proudly manufacturing in Australia since the 1960s, Hitachi Energy drives innovation with solutions for the stability of the electrical grid and power quality. The Hitachi Energy factory in Lilydale, Victoria, is a Global Centre of Excellence for metal-enclosed capacitor banks, medium voltage distribution vacuum switches, and power factor controllers, with the majority of products manufactured in Lilydale designed and developed by Australian R&D.
Sustainable solutions for a sustainable future
As the world shifts to a sustainable energy future for all, so must power systems. With switchgear typically in service for 40 years, it’s important to act fast, as decisions taken today will determine the success of Net Zero in 2050. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is around 25,000 times more climate-hostile than CO2 and remains in the atmosphere for over a thousand years.
With the recent launch of the world’s highest-voltage SF6-free switchgear the EconiQTM 550 kV circuit breaker that can be used in gas-insulated switchgear and dead tank breakers and the EconiQ 420 kV Live Tank Breaker, Hitachi Energy tackles this challenge head-on.
To mitigate the escalating risk of bushfires, Hitachi Energy has developed the innovative Spark Prevention Unit. This innovative solution eliminates the fire hazard posed by overloaded surge arresters on distribution networks. Considered spark-free according to class A of Australian Standard AS 1307.2, it disconnects surge arresters from the grid when thermally overloaded, thus significantly reducing the risk of igniting a fire.
These solutions for sustainability allow power grid operators to focus on two pressing challenges: delivering the energy transition and addressing climate change. The former demands a rapid expansion of grid infrastructure like switchgear, while the latter necessitates an urgent phaseout of SF6 and the set-up of a climate resilient power grid.
Reliable supply chain
Globally, the energy transition is gathering pace, and that creates demand and competition for products and services.
Reflecting on the industry’s challenges ahead, Norton points to the vital importance of strong partnerships across the value chain to scale solutions quickly and effectively.
“Customers want to partner with a technology supplier with leading products and innovations, with global and diversified supply chains, global and local service footprint. We work in partnership with our customers to ensure the technology is available in time for projects. Together we can achieve a sustainable energy future for all.”
