Hitachi Energy strengthens its presence at Energy Storage Summit Latin America

This is a machine translation of the original release issued in Spanish

PRESS RELEASE from Hitachi Energy
October 30, 2024

• Hitachi Energy’s acquisition of eks Energy in 2023 generated a great deal of interest in the sector. A year later, it took another major step by integrating it into the firm’s portfolio as Hitachi Energy “Power Conversion Solutions”.
• Hitachi Energy's storage solutions, recognized for their functionality, were one of the focuses of its participation at the Latin American Energy Storage Summit 2024, held in Chile.

  Santiago, October 30, 2024 – Integrating advanced power electronics and energy management software capabilities to meet the growing demand for battery storage solutions was one of the key reasons behind Hitachi Energy’s decision to acquire eks Energy.

This integration is expanding opportunities for collaboration and co-creation in energy storage systems, improving the global offering and accelerating the transition to clean energy. One year after the acquisition by Hitachi Energy, eks Energy – which is now integrated into the firm’s portfolio as Hitachi Energy “Power Conversion Solutions” – has accessed new markets and customers, especially in Europe, the US and Australia.

This growth was a significant attraction for Hitachi Energy's participation in the third edition of the Energy Storage Summit Latin America, an event that sought to analyze the challenges, trends and opportunities in energy storage at a regional level.

Diego Pernías, Business Development Manager for Hitachi Energy for the utilities and renewables segments, highlighted that “Chile is a benchmark in this field, being the largest energy storage market in Latin America. For us, it was an excellent opportunity to participate with Power Conversion Solutions, a business unit specialized in energy backup.”

Luis del Castillo, Business Development Manager at Power Conversion Solutions, confirmed that they participated in the event mainly to reaffirm that they are now part of Hitachi Energy. “In addition, we showed our power electronics solutions, based on the WD3 platform, which include photovoltaic inverters, battery converters and hybrid equipment, integrating the solar field and batteries with a technology already proven in Chile, with coupling in both alternating and direct current.”

Hitachi Energy's Power Conversion Solutions offering for storage projects is based on power control technology, with the aim of integrating these systems into the grid. This system consists of an ESS (Energy Storage System), the WD3 platform and the PPC (Power Plant Controller) for energy regulation and control, which is arousing growing interest in Chile.

“For us, Chile is the second most important market in America, after the United States. Currently, we have almost one gigawatt between installed and under-construction projects, with almost four gigawatt hours of battery power. This is a significant record that we can expand thanks to the acquisition by Hitachi Energy, which allows us to offer a better service to our customers in Chile,” stressed Luis del Castillo.

For his part, Diego Pernías added that “the current advantage we have in this market lies in the flexibility of Power Conversion Solutions and the possibility of doing business in different ways, both with the end customer and through integrators. As Hitachi Energy is integrated, we are beginning to structure new ways of approaching customers, a process that is in development, but which already gives us clarity on how to offer our comparative advantages.”

Energy transition

Regarding the contribution they can make to the energy transition, Luis Del Castillo highlighted that in Chile several conventional generation plants are being withdrawn, replacing them with renewable energy plants. This creates challenges, since generation cannot be programmed based on the sun or the wind.

“We offer storage-based solutions, whether coupled, continuous, stand-alone or alternating, that allow us to provide auxiliary services to the grid and mitigate the lack of inertia after the retirement of conventional generation. Now that we are part of Hitachi Energy, we have additional competitive advantages to offer to customers, achieving a broader supply scope, which makes us very satisfied with what we can achieve,” concluded Luis del Castillo.

About Hitachi Energy

Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We serve customers in utilities, industry and infrastructure with innovative solutions and services across the entire value chain. Together with customers and partners, we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation needed to accelerate the energy transition to a carbon-neutral future. We are advancing the global energy system to be more sustainable, flexible and secure, while balancing social, environmental and economic value. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and an unmatched installed base in more than 140 countries. We integrate more than 150 GW of HVDC links into the power system, helping our customers enable more wind and solar power. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ more than 40,000 people in 90 countries and generate revenues of more than US$10 billion.

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