Renewable Energy

Wind Turbines

ElectroDrives, through the acquired company International Electronics, started their involvement in the renewable energy sector in 2000 with the development of one of the first Full-Size Converters (FSC) for variable-pitch wind turbines in the world. In total, 481 wind turbines were produced for Made / Gamesa of type Made AE-52, Made AE-56 and Made AE-59, all rated 800kW.

ElectroDrives provides services as OEM in many power converter systems for companies like Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, GE Renewable Energy, Nordex Acciona, Enercon, Senvion and others, including:

• Power stack repair (inverter IGCT stacks, chopper stacks, rectifier stacks).

• IGBT power modules and SCR power module repair.

• Control boards repair, testing and verification.

• Power converters repair, troubleshooting and upgrade for wind farms.

Hydropower Plants

ElectroDrives has been involved in hydropower since 2005 with the supply of the first chopper starters for a pumped-storage hydropower plant in Guillena (Sevilla) rated 3 x 75 MW:

• Large hydro. ElectroDrives provides solutions related to the obsolescence of electrical equipment of large generators (i.e. refurbishing excitation systems of synchronous machines) and supplies soft starter systems for pony motors of pumped-storage hydropower plants with different technologies (i.e. wound rotor motors, squirrel cage motors, etc.) up to 100 MW.
• Small hydro. ElectroDrives manufactures excitation systems for small synchronous generators of the Francis and Kaplan turbines (< 20 MW) present in most of the small-scale hydroelectric power plants.

Hydrogen Electrolysis

In 2018, ElectroDrives started the development of power systems for PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) electrolyzers to support the global effort to produce high-purity hydrogen from green sources. The proposal includes power systems up to 3,000kW per single piece of equipment (higher power is possible by adding multiple systems) producing a nominal hydrogen flow of up to 600 Nm³/h (1295 kg/day).

Depending on the energy source there are different topologies possible:

1. Solar to H₂. Regulating the DC energy from photovoltaic panels without the use of solar inverters to improve the efficiency of the system.
2. Wind to H₂. Integrating the power system into the power converter of the wind turbine to extract energy directly from the DC bus.
3. Grid to H₂. The conventional AC/DC system, producing hydrogen from the grid whether from renewable or conventional sources.
4. Hybrid systems with combination of two of the previously mentioned topologies.