Schneider Electric pulls out of utility-scale PV business

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From pv magazine global

Schneider Electric confirmed to pv magazine that it will pull out of the utility scale PV inverter business. After inquiries about the matter to Schneider Electric, a company spokesperson stated that “after a careful analysis of the renewables market, Schneider Electric has updated its strategy.”

To date, the company has been active in all market segments in PV. In the utility scale segment, Schneider Electric has two central inverter solutions in its portfolio: the Conext Core XC 1000V and Conext SmartGen 1500V. Additionally, Schneider offers string inverters for its utility-scale business with a 60 kW and a 125-kW rating at a voltage of 1000V and 1500V, respectively.

Schneider, also provides large-scale storage solutions and a range of power electronics such as LV Switchboards and the PV Minera transformer for substations, as well as integrated full substation solutions. Also, the PV Box solution combining a PV inverter, combiner box, MV/LV-transformer, and switchgear in an integrated containerized solution, could be pulled from the market. According to company information the product had initially been designed for commercial and industrial and utility scale plants, with smaller options of 0.5 MW and 0.75 MW available.

“Schneider Electric will stop serving the utility scale segment,” the company spokesperson said. However, this does not mean a farewell from the PV market more generally. Schneider says that it seeks to position itself in the “renewables space towards the residential and C&I segments, leveraging the full Ecostruxxure portfolio.”

With regards to current projects and associated services, the spokesperson assured that all commitments will be “maintained and fulfilled”. In December 2018, Schneider Electric announced that it will deliver its Conext SmartGen central inverters and operations and maintenance services to the 45 MW Minami and 70 MW Bizen projects in Japan. Construction on both projects is scheduled to commence this year.

In terms of distributed generation applications, Schneider Electric offers a wider range of solutions for various mining, C&I and island and mini-grids. It believes these applications in particular leverage its Ecostruxxure IoT platform.

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