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Alencon to Launch the BOSS – Bi-Directional DC-DC Optimizer for Storage at ESA 2019

Alencon will launch its newest product, the BOSS – the Bi-Directional Optimizer for Storage Systems at the Energy Storage Association’s Annual Conference and Expo

            Alencon Systems LLC will unveil its newest product – the Bi-Directional Optimizer for Storage Systems – the BOSS – at the Energy Storage Association’s Annual Conference and Expo April 16 – 18 in Phoenix, AZ. The BOSS will be on display in Alencon Systems’ booth #500.

            The Alencon BOSS is a unique solution for both improving and bringing down the cost of DC-Coupled Solar + Storage deployments while extending useful life of the batteries and improving battery rack utilization.  The BOSS controls the charge and discharge of individual battery racks in both DC and AC coupled deployments.  The BOSS supports the integration of energy storage with 600, 1000 or 1500-volt PV strings. 

Figure 1: Alencon Systems will debut its new BOSS – the Bi-Directional DC-DC Optimizer for Storage Systems at the Energy Storage Association’s Annual Conference and Expo April 16 – 18 in Phoenix, AZ. The BOSS is a unique, galvanically isolated battery rack charge optimizer which makes deploying DC-coupled Solar + Storage projects easier.

The BOSS features Alencon’s patented Galvanically Isolated DC-DC conversion topology. This unique architecture offers users a number of benefits not available from other non-isolated DC-DC converters, including the ability to incorporate grounded PV systems with floating batteries on the same DC-bus as well as the ability to pair high voltage 1500-volt PV with lower voltage battery chemistries. Additionally, because the BOSS is a rack level DC-DC converter it assures the most optimal utilization of each battery rack in the cabinet. By addressing each battery rack individually, the BOSS also improves system safety by limiting the fault currents in the case of a sudden short to ground thus potentially reducing system cost by eliminating the need for additional safety devices.  Additionally, the BOSS makes battery rack augmentation over the life of a storage project much easier and cost effective by allowing battery racks with different charge-discharge voltages to be installed onto the same DC-bus. Very uniquely, the BOSS also makes it easy to deploy DC-coupled Solar + Storage projects with string inverters.

            “As a leader in the field of DC-coupling for Solar + Storage, our customers looked to us to help them to continue to find more cost-effective solutions for deploying DC-Coupled Solar + Storage projects, which lead us to develop the BOSS” says Alencon Systems President Hanan Fishman. “DC-coupling of Solar + Storage is growing rapidly in popularity.  The Alencon BOSS applies our unique galvanically isolated technology to address a number of needs that storage developers are facing.”

            “The BOSS addresses a number of heretofore unmet needs by DC-DC converters in the DC coupled Solar + Storage space, including the ability to incorporate transformerless string inverters into these projects, the ability to resolve grounding challenges on the same DC-bus, the ability to optimize battery charge at the rack level as well as offer a more intuitive approach to battery rack augmentation over the life of a project.”

            The BOSS is available in a number of form factors including: 

            - A 19-inch rack mounted unit which can be installed and easily integrated into a battery cabinet.

            - An outdoor rated, rail or wall mounted form factor which can be installed either inside a battery cabinet or outside of it. 

            - An indoor cabinet of stacked, rack mounted units

            - An outdoor, cement pad mounted version enclosing a number of rack mounted units

Figure 2: The Alencon BOSS can be packaged in any number of form factors, including single rack mounted or rail mounted units or indoor or outdoor cabinets.

Any number of BOSS units can be installed in parallel and can be easily packaged into a single cabinet if desired. The devices feature a unique mechanical packaging with forced air cooling.

About Alencon

Alencon’s solutions for ALternative ENergy CONversion provide high modularity and scalability for systems from several megawatts to several-hundred megawatts. By helping to dramatically reduce balance of system costs, and increase power production through new inverter and energy harvesting technology, Alencon helps advance the state of the art and increase the financial viability of solar power.  Headquartered in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, has been building PV power conversion hardware since 2009, drawing on the combined decades of power electronics experience of its engineering team.