By grid-connecting a 108.4 MW/215.6 MWh battery at Takmao in Kandal Province and showing it can energise a plant from zero voltage, inverter and storage supplier Sungrow claims it now offers grid-forming storage that can anchor part of Cambodia’s network.
The project is the EDC Kandal Stueng station (GS79), and Sungrow says it uses grid-forming technology for voltage and frequency stability, black-start capability and coordination with hydro and thermal generation.
The acceptance tests were built around rebuilding a network rather than shifting energy. The 516 grid-forming PCS units energised the plant from zero voltage and supported restoration of about 240 km of transmission lines and five substations. The battery then supported the start-up and synchronisation of the 60 MW Kamchay Hydropower Plant, and the restored network was operated with the 135 MW CIIDG coal-fired power plant and connected loads. It also operated independently for 3.5 hours, and three transitions between grid-connected and islanded modes kept voltage deviation below 2 per cent and transient frequency fluctuation within 0.15 hertz.
That is the profile of a system-security asset for coordinating hydro and thermal plants. The tests show no role in absorbing distributed solar, so any link to rooftop solar policy is an inference the evidence does not support.
The site sits at a key point in Cambodia’s central grid, including transmission corridors that import electricity from Vietnam, which gives a utility a clear reason to want stability there. It is not evidence of a programme. Neither Sungrow nor EDC has disclosed who owns the battery, who financed it, what it cost or whether further storage tenders are planned. Sungrow lists storage and monitoring system design, equipment design, commissioning, EPC-related support and operations and maintenance in its scope, but has named no local civil or electrical partners.
For contractors, repeat projects would create repeat packages; a single site would create one. Until EDC publishes a tender schedule, the sensible reading is a single grid-support project with pipeline potential.
Sungrow says it completed hot commissioning and three rounds of performance testing within 20 days, in rainy-season conditions with ambient temperatures reaching 40 °C. The battery also remained stable through five transformer energisation events, one involving a transformer rated at up to 100 MVA. These are the supplier’s own figures, and an owner’s tender team will want them confirmed. If they hold, rival integrators bidding for later storage packages will be measured against them.
Three markers will settle the question: a published EDC storage tender, a financing disclosure that names the owner and price of Kandal Stueng, and later specifications that demand black-start and islanded operation as this one was tested for. Contractors should also watch for the local partners on this job. Where they surface, they are the likeliest first bidders for repeat work.