Photomate is active in the field of solar inverters for commercial and residential customers and has a team of more than 140 employees in 23 countries in Central, Eastern, Northern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The company is Huawei VAP (Value Added Partner) solar inverter distributor for CEE, Scandinavia and Baltics and CSP (Certified Service Partner). Nikolay Ivanov is Country Manager for Bulgaria.
Mr. Ivanov, solar is undoubtedly the most widespread renewable energy source in Bulgaria but it does pose some challenges. What are they and how can they be addressed?
Currently, the Bulgarian market is faced with the most common challenge in solar energy production from solar – photovoltaic systems work during the day when there is sunshine. Due to this, there is currently an oversaturation, and there is more production than consumption. Therefore, the next natural step and extension to photovoltaic systems will be energy storage systems, or so-called batteries.
Is Photomate prepared for this next natural step in the development of solar energy production? Does your portfolio cover energy storage systems and which segments does it cater to?
Yes, we can most certainly confirm that Photomate is well prepared and has a solution for each of the three PV segments – residential, C&I and utility scale. Being a partner to one of the biggest and well-known manufacturers in the renewable energy sector – Huawei, gives us the opportunity to deliver solutions from 5kWh to 2MWh in all 23 counties where Photomate operates. I would like to use the opportunity to mention the storage solutions under C&I segment as there is currently the biggest variety to cater the needs of our clients – 97kWh, 129kWh, 161kWh, 200kWh.
I can also shed light on the exciting, long awaited solutions that will be part of our portfolio and will be available for pre-orders within the next few months. For the residential segment, Huawei has introduced the 7kWh residential module batteries that can operate in parallel up to 84kWh. They will be available to purchase from our official distributors at the beginning of the second half of 2024. For utility-scale projects, we are expecting, as we are speaking, the release of the brand-new solution of over 4MWh containers with liquid cooling. Our sales and solution team at Photomate is open to answering all questions and enquiries for these products.
What is your vision for the development of the company and the sector in which you operate over the next few years?
In addition to our sale activities, we offer various additional services to our clients and plan to add new ones. Our focus will be to enrich our portfolio with services related to the installation and connection of the systems we provide. Simultaneously, our company is involved in the development of projects related to hydrogen, as we believe this will be a new step in the development of renewable sources and a next means of energy generation.
Can you elaborate further on these new types of services that you plan on adding?
As Photomate we would like to differentiate ourselves from just the regular selling company. We have a technical and solution team of over 50 people at the moment who are taking care of all our client’s enquiries connected to the pre-sale and after-sale process. What is probably not known to the wider audience is that we are also offering solution and design studies. As of last year our team is certified as a 4-star CSP – Certified Service Partner. This allows us to add a new added-value service to our portfolio – the commissioning of C&I storage solutions. All clients who have selected Huawei solutions for their project would be able to rely on our professional support in the installation of those products. We are working on expanding these services to utility-scale ESS and will be able to share more insights on that topic soon. Last but not least, Photomate is currently developing an EMS (Energy Management System), one of the most important tools to ensure the efficient operation of energy storage system.