South Africa’s Energy crisis will be under the spotlight once again as exhibitors prepare for the Solar Show Africa, which is happening in Johannesburg from 24 to 25 March 2015.

In light of the energy mix needed in the country, Imeon Energy, French designer and manufacturer of solar self-consumption inverters, has signed strategic partnerships with Rubicon Renewables and Telecom Techniques.

The partnership will provide their South African customer base with an integrated smart grid technology that combines both off-grid and grid-tie functions in one intelligent inverter for residential and mid-size commercial applications, with possible combination with generator sets.

The company’s solution is based on a self-consumption concept, which is to directly consume one’s own solar production, charge batteries with the surplus of solar power, and feed-in to the grid only if there is further excess of solar production.

The result is an industry leading inverter boasting a 30% solar efficiency advantage over traditional systems, therefore 30% more electricity bill savings, with the beauty of instant plug-and-play technology and global real-time monitoring via smart phone app.

This technique prolongs the batteries’ life due to drastic reduction of unnecessary battery cycling, a common phenomenon of traditional inverter chargers, and consequently reduces the cost of battery replacements.

In case of power outages, Imeon provides Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) from solar and battery sources until the grid is back on.

“Such residential and commercial smart grid solutions provide energy autonomy, all while maintaining a high level of grid interactivity to support the network during black outs, or during future expansion of the grid to isolated sites that are already equipped with Imeon smart inverters”, adds Christophe Goasguen, Director of Operations at Imeon Energy.

With such objectives, the French company is obtaining TÜV Rheinland certification for the South African grid integration standard, NRS 097-2-1.