Ensure the security of the electrical network in the event of tripping of a thermal unit, loss of hydroelectric or solar producer, or even part of the transmission network: this is the role of the brand new Putu Uira generator. With a power of 15 megawatts, it is as powerful as a Punaruu thermal group.
Putu Uira will allow to:
- promote hydroelectricity at night (+4 GWh/year);
- promote photovoltaic during the day on weekends:
- supply 15 MW of spinning reserve for 20 minutes 24 hours a day and therefore stop a Punaruu group all year round.
Read also > 14 hours of renewable energy on Sunday thanks to Putu Uira
After a first phase of trials started last August, et one second in september, which was a successPutu Uira was officially inaugurated this Friday, January 6th.
Putu Uira is an international project that involves the French company EDT, Kokam which is Korean and Simens which is Chinese. “We had to work with the time difference and with several languages, it was not easy. We had to meet a lot of requirements, but thanks to the coordination of the teams, we managed to deliver a safe energy storage system to Tahiti” explains Brandon Yi, representative of the Kokam company.
The generator will play an essential role within the electrical network. He will come to secure it, but not only: “A network is a balance. On the one hand, you have the customers, when you turn on a light in your home, you put weight on the scale, and on the other hand, we have the means of production and this scale must always be balanced. Before, we had to have on the production scale, always at least two thermal groups. And today, we are able to stop one because Putu Uira is there, he is on the set but the set is not gaining weight” says Patrick Desfour, project manager and head of the energy transition department at EDT ENGIE.
Since its commissioning, Putu Uira has made it possible to reduce the share of thermal energy in the plant. According to estimates, shutting down a thermal unit would save 4,000 tonnes of fuel each year.
The generator will have cost 1.75 billion XPF to EDT. A second project of this type is currently being developed on Bora Bora.