Author: Ben Ready

Australian energy grid technology company EcoJoule Energy has secured its first sale into Malaysia, marking another significant milestone in the company’s international expansion and adding one of Southeast Asia’s most important electricity markets to its growing global footprint.

The sale to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia’s national electricity company and operator of the electricity grid throughout Peninsular Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur, includes multiple EcoVAR™ ALTO pole-mounted STATCOMs and EcoSTORE™ pole-mounted Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) units.

The first shipment of EcoVAR units left Australia this week, with the EcoSTORE units to leave in approximately eight weeks.

The agreement further expands EcoJoule Energy’s international presence, which now spans almost ten countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Israel and now Malaysia.

EcoJoule Energy Founder and CEO Dr Mike Wishart said the new sale reflected growing global demand for technologies that help electricity networks manage the growth of renewable energy and the impact on the energy grid.

“Malaysia represents an important new market for EcoJoule and demonstrates the increasing international recognition of Australian innovation in electricity network management,” Dr Wishart said.

“Across the world, network operators are facing many of the same challenges. As solar penetration continues to increase, particularly on distribution networks, utilities need smarter and more flexible ways to manage voltage stability and power quality.”

“We are seeing strong demand for STATCOM technologies because they provide a highly effective solution for maintaining grid stability, while enabling greater levels of renewable energy integration.

“Utilities are looking for practical, cost-effective tools that help them manage the energy transition without relying solely on traditional network augmentation that can cost tens of millions of dollars.”

“The challenges facing electricity networks in Asia, Europe and Australia share a common theme – the transition to cleaner energy is creating increasingly dynamic and complex power flows. EcoJoule’s technologies are designed specifically to help networks adapt to that transition efficiently and sustainably.”

EcoJoule Chief Commercial Officer Martin van der Linde said the Malaysian deployment highlighted the versatility of the company’s technology platforms and its ability to address a broad range of network challenges.

“Our EcoVAR and EcoSTORE platforms have been developed to solve some of the most pressing issues facing modern electricity networks,” Mr van der Linde said.

“What makes the technology unique is its ability to address multiple challenges through a flexible, pole-mounted solution that can be rapidly deployed where it is needed most.”

“Whether utilities are dealing with voltage variability caused by rooftop solar, phase imbalance, peak demand constraints, increasing electrification, or the need for distributed energy storage, our technology provides network operators with greater visibility, control and flexibility.”

“The global energy transition is creating increasingly complex energy flows throughout distribution networks. EcoJoule’s solutions help operators manage that complexity while maximising the use of existing infrastructure and improving reliability for customers.”

EcoVAR™ is a pole-mounted Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) that uses advanced power electronics and software to regulate voltage and reactive power on low-voltage networks in real time. The technology enables network operators to integrate greater levels of distributed renewable energy and electrification technologies while improving power quality and reducing the need for costly network upgrades.

EcoSTORE™ is EcoJoule’s pole-mounted battery energy storage platform, designed to provide distributed storage capacity within local electricity networks. The system helps manage peak demand, supports renewable energy integration, improves network resilience and enables more efficient utilisation of grid infrastructure.

The Malaysian project follows a series of successful deployments of EcoJoule technologies across Australia and international markets, reinforcing the adaptability of the company’s solutions across diverse network conditions and regulatory environments.

Established nearly a decade ago, EcoJoule Energy is a 100 per cent Australian-owned company providing innovative solutions that help electricity distributors integrate renewable energy, improve power quality and manage grid reliability.

Australia’s low-voltage networks are facing growing pressure from rooftop solar, EVs and changing patterns of electricity demand. For network engineers, managing the resulting voltage and power-quality issues has traditionally required costly and time-consuming network augmentation.

EcoJoule Energy’s EcoVAR D-STATCOM provides an alternative. Installed directly on the LV network, EcoVAR uses advanced power electronics to dynamically manage voltage, reactive power and phase imbalance without major infrastructure upgrades.

It does not replace augmentation where additional network capacity is required. Instead, EcoVAR gives engineers a faster, flexible and deployable option for addressing common LV constraints, improving network performance and potentially deferring capital expenditure.

Six problems now account for the majority of LV feeder complaints and constraint reports. The EcoVAR addresses all six from a single pole-mounted unit.

Problem	Typical cause on the LV feeder	EcoVAR response
Overvoltage	Reverse power flow from rooftop PV raising feeder voltage above the statutory limit, worst at the feeder extremities in the middle of the day.	Absorbs reactive power and rebalances phase loading to reduce voltage at the point of connection.
Undervoltage	Coincident evening demand from EV charging, heat pumps and air conditioning at the end of long feeders.	Injects reactive power and transfers real load between phases to raise voltage.
Voltage unbalance	Single-phase PV, EV chargers and heat pumps connected unevenly across the three phases.	Actively transfers real power between phases, reducing unbalance, peak phase current, neutral current and feeder losses.
Voltage sags	Step changes in LV load such as motor starting, welding plant and DC fast charging.	Sub-cycle detection and response limits the depth and duration of sags originating on the LV network. Sags originating from upstream HV faults are outside its scope.
Harmonics	Rectifier front ends in PV inverters, EV chargers, variable speed drives and switched-mode power supplies.	Active harmonic filtering injects counter-phase current on selected harmonic orders.
Flicker	Fluctuating load and rapidly varying generation on high-impedance and SWER-fed networks.	Continuous dynamic response holds voltage through the fluctuation, reducing Pst and Plt.

Why the excursions matter

Consequence	Why it drives action
Regulatory compliance and licence risk	Steady-state voltage limits are a statutory or licence obligation. Sustained excursions are reportable non-compliance, and the duty to correct sits with the distributor regardless of which connection caused it.
Customer complaints and cost to serve	Each excursion generates complaints, site visits and repeat investigation on the same feeder until the cause is found. Complaint volume is itself a reported performance measure.
Equipment that will not operate	Voltage outside the operating window causes EV chargers to derate or stop, PV inverters to trip and lose customer generation, and sensitive electronics to fail. As electrification scales, a charger that will not deliver is read by the customer as a network failure.

Why these problems are growing

The LV network was designed to deliver diversified, unidirectional power to loads of a few kilowatts each. Four changes have invalidated that design basis, and all four act on the same conductors:

Change	Effect on the LV network
Gas heating to heat pumps	Adds several kilowatts of coincident winter evening load per premises.
EV charging	Adds 7 to 22 kW single-phase point loads with high coincidence after work hours.
Rooftop PV	Reverses power flow for part of the day and raises voltage at the feeder extremities.
High power electronics	Injects harmonic current and concentrates load unevenly across phases.

The network was never built for bidirectional flow at these power levels, and rebuilding it to suit is not economically feasible at the scale or pace the transition requires.

The traditional answer: augmentation

Augmentation resolves the constraint by reducing feeder impedance or adding capacity. It works, and it carries a fixed set of costs on every project:

Cost driver	What it means in practice
Bespoke engineering	Site-specific design, load flow study and construction package for each location.
Approvals and access	Easements, consent, traffic management and environmental approvals.
Lead time	Design to energisation typically measured in months, against constraints that are emerging in weeks.
Customer outage	Planned interruptions to complete the work, with the associated notification and reliability impact.
Stranding risk	Capital committed to one location for the life of the asset, whether or not the constraint stays there.

What the EcoVAR does differently

The EcoVAR is a low voltage D-STATCOM. It differs from a conventional STATCOM in one respect that matters on LV feeders: it combines Volt-VAR reactive control with active phase balancing.

LV feeders are resistance-dominated. A conventional STATCOM controls voltage by exchanging reactive power, which acts on the reactive component of line impedance. On a feeder with a high R/X ratio that lever is limited, which is why reactive-only compensation is often ruled out for LV voltage correction.

The EcoVAR also transfers real power between phases through its 864 VDC secondary bus, acting on the resistive component. The two mechanisms together give the EcoVAR voltage authority on feeders where reactive compensation alone would not be sufficient, without reconductoring.

Installation and deployment

Attribute	EcoVAR
Installation time	Under two hours on a single existing pole.
Outage required	None. The unit is connected live to the LV network.
Engineering per site	None. No bespoke design package, no reconductoring.
Redeployment	The unit can be relocated when the constraint moves, so capital is not stranded.

The cost comparison

EcoJoule compares options on an equivalent annual cost (EAC) basis, which normalises assets with different capital costs and different lives. On that basis, modelling across a range of network cases shows the EcoVAR annualised cost is generally one third or less of the augmentation option that resolves the same constraint, driven by lower installed capital and the ability to redeploy the asset. The result is more constraint resolved per dollar of capital budget, and a lower cost outcome for the customers who pay for the network.

EAC outcomes depend on the augmentation scope being displaced, the discount rate and the asset lives assumed. EcoJoule can run the comparison against your own assumptions.

Where augmentation is still required

The EcoVAR does not add conductor or transformer rating. That matters less in practice than it first appears, because of how LV constraints actually present:

Constraint	Role of the EcoVAR
Genuine thermal limit on a balanced feeder	Augmentation is required. The EcoVAR restores voltage compliance within two hours while the augmentation project moves through the backlog, then redeploys to the next site once the works are energised.

Deferral economics

Because the unit is redeployable, it does not have to displace an augmentation project to earn its return. It only has to delay it. EcoJoule’s modelling indicates a deferral of approximately two years is sufficient for the EcoVAR to return its cost across most network cases. Where the augmentation backlog already exceeds twelve months, that threshold is largely met by the queue alone.

Where voltage non-compliance is already occurring and the augmentation project is a year or more from energisation, the alternative to the EcoVAR is not a faster upgrade. It is another year of non-compliance.

Request the comparison for your network

The EAC cost comparison model and supporting application notes are available on request.

sales@ecojoule.com

EcoJoule Energy has released a commissioning checklist for the EcoVAR ALTO™ 40 kVA LV STATCOM. It is available to EcoJoule customers and their appointed installation contractors on request.

A trained crew installs and commissions an EcoVAR ALTO™ in under two hours, with no LV outage. Most of that time is mechanical. The commissioning steps that follow give clarity for a successful installation.

EJ-FRM-OPS-CHECK-0071 covers seven stages, from receipt of the pallet to signed sign-off:

• Pre-installation ground checks
• Site and mechanical installation
• Electrical connection
• Inspection before commissioning
• Startup and commissioning procedure
• Operational verification
• Commissioning sign-off

Every check is referenced to the section of the EcoVAR ALTO™ User Manual that explains it, so a crew resolves a question at the pole rather than calling the depot.

The sign-off page records serial number, pole or asset number, modem IP address, settings applied and first-run measurements.

Document details

Document ID	EJ-FRM-OPS-CHECK-0071
Title	EcoVAR ALTO™ Commissioning Checklist
Version	1 — initial release
Issued	14 August 2026
Applies to	EcoVAR ALTO™ 40 kVA LV STATCOM (Model EV40), pole-mounted on the LV overhead network
Availability	EcoJoule customers and their appointed installation contractors, on request

How to request a copy

Email service@ecojoule.com. If you have an installation programme starting, tell us the crew size and we will walk your commissioning engineers through the EcoFLEET™ steps beforehand.

About EcoJoule Energy

EcoJoule Energy designs and manufactures low voltage grid equipment in Loganholme, Queensland. The EcoVAR LV STATCOM regulates voltage, balances phases and filters harmonics on the distribution network.

EcoJoule Energy has completed the first export of its EcoVAR low-voltage distribution STATCOM to Portugal, opening a new European market for the Australian manufacturer.

The 40 kVAR three-phase units were built at the company’s Brisbane facility and dispatched this month. With the sale, EcoVAR technology is now in service across four continents — Oceania, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The export milestone follows a $15 million capital raise EcoJoule completed in 2025, led by Ellerston Capital and Fifth Estate Asset Management, and including a $3 million commitment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) through its Powering Australia Technology Fund.

The investment has supported EcoJoule to build manufacturing capacity, inventory and its commercial team, the foundations for meeting demand at home and, increasingly, overseas.

The EcoVAR is a low-voltage distribution STATCOM. It supplies dynamic reactive power, balances load across phases and filters harmonics directly on the distribution network.

It installs without a network outage, and helps distributors hold voltage within limits and connect more rooftop solar to existing feeders, deferring or avoiding conventional network augmentation.

Dr Wishart developed the EcoVAR after observing voltage problems firsthand while working at an electricity utility, drawing on a career formerly leading research and development for global multinational electrical companies.

“Portugal is the newest market to adopt the EcoVAR, and it shows technology designed and built in Australia is competitive globally. With CEFC’s support behind our scale-up, our task is to keep making it straightforward for networks anywhere to access it.”

Mr van der Linde recently joined EcoJoule as Chief Commercial Officer to lead the company’s global market development.

Australian energy technology company EcoJoule Energy has secured a Grid Enhancing Technologies Grant (GET) Program to support the deployment of its innovative technology that improves the efficiency and capacity of Australia’s electricity networks.

EcoJoule Energy is one of 14 successful grant recipients announced by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen as part of a $30 million investment in projects designed to create a smarter, more efficient and resilient electricity system.

The funding will support EcoJoule Energy to demonstrate how advanced network optimisation technologies, including the EcoVAR Alto and the EcoSTORE Alto, can help electricity distribution networks manage voltage, increase their capacity to accommodate renewable energy and make better use of existing infrastructure.

EcoJoule Energy CEO Dr Mike Wishart welcomed the grant and thanked the Australian Government for supporting the continued development and deployment of Australian-developed and Australian-made grid technology.

“We welcome the Australian Government’s investment in Grid Enhancing Technologies and thank Minister Bowen and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water for their support,” Dr Wishart said.

“Australia’s energy system is undergoing a fundamental transformation as rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other distributed energy resources become a larger part of the energy mix,” Dr Wishart said.

“This transition is creating new challenges for electricity networks, particularly at the low-voltage level. It is also creating an opportunity to use smart, flexible technologies to get more from the infrastructure we already have.

EcoJoule Energy develops and manufactures advanced power quality and battery energy storage systems for distribution electricity networks in Australia and international markets. The company’s technology is currently in use in nearly a dozen countries on four continents.

The technology helps network operators manage voltage, improve power quality and accommodate growing levels of customer energy resources (CER).

Dr Wishart said the GET Grant Program recognised the important role Australian innovation would play in modernising the nation’s electricity grid.

“Australia is a global leader in the adoption of rooftop solar, but realising its full value will require greater investment in the distribution networks that connect homes and businesses,” he said.

“Network optimisation technologies can address voltage constraints and release additional capacity without relying solely on major new infrastructure.

“This project will provide valuable evidence about how these technologies can be deployed more broadly to benefit networks, consumers and the wider energy system.

“EcoJoule is proud to be contributing Australian-developed technology and expertise to this important national program.”

The GET Grant Program forms part of the Australian Government’s Rewiring the Nation program. The 14 successful projects will operate across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

EcoJoule Energy has teamed up with Hitachi Energy, a global leader in electrification, and battery manufacturer EVE Energy to launch a new industry-leading sub-5 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) that will help alleviate network constraints and maximise existing and new consumer energy resources (CER).

EcoSTORE MEGA is engineered for both grid-following and grid-forming applications and integrates EVE Energy’s 5 MWh MR Giant LFP battery containers with Hitachi Energy’s WD4 power conversion system and centralised power plant controller. This architecture enables precise active and reactive power control for utility-scale projects.

The system is built around a standard 4.98 MW/5 MWh block architecture that can support a range of energy durations using a common PCS platform. This modular approach allows developers and utilities to scale capacity over time while maintaining consistent performance across sites.

The modular system has been designed and integrated in Australia to meet the operational, regulatory and environmental requirements of local electricity networks. The system combines Hitachi Energy’s bi-directional power conversion systems and control technology with high-efficiency lithium iron phosphate battery containers from EVE Energy.

The EcoSTORE MEGA will allow network operators to alleviate network constraints on high-voltage feeders and substations, enable more CER connections,  and reduce reliance on large-scale generation solutions, which are facing high costs and social challenges.

EcoJoule Energy Founder and CEO Dr Mike Wishart said the partnerships reflected the importance of combining globally proven technology with strong local engineering and integration capability.

“Battery storage is rapidly becoming critical infrastructure for the Australian energy system, and we believe there is a real opportunity to grow in the space between small household batteries and large utility-scale batteries,” he said.

“EcoSTORE MEGA reflects that philosophy and combines proven Tier-1 components with EcoJoule’s deep experience in power electronics, system integration and grid compliance to deliver a reliable and scalable energy storage platform designed specifically for Australian network conditions.”

EcoJoule Chief Commercial Officer Martin van der Linde said EcoJoule Energy’s role as a local integrator was critical to ensuring global battery technology performs effectively within Australia’s complex grid environment.

“Successful battery projects require more than high-quality hardware. They require a deep understanding of local grid behaviour, compliance requirements and network expectations,” Mr van der Linde said.

“As an Australian engineering and integration partner, EcoJoule works closely with developers, utilities and network operators to ensure systems are designed, commissioned and operated to perform in real-world conditions,” he said.

“By integrating global technology locally, we can customise each system for Australian standards and operating environments while providing onshore engineering, commissioning and long-term support.

“With EcoJoule managing the entire engineering and rollout, we can get systems on the ground quickly and efficiently reducing delivery risk for our customers and helping ensure these assets perform reliably over their entire operational life.”

EcoJoule’s other products include:

• EcoVAR ALTO is a pole-mounted low voltage STATCOM that regulates voltage levels on distribution networks in real time. The technology enables network operators to integrate more consumer energy resources and electrification technologies without costly grid upgrades.
• EcoSTORE ALTO is an intelligent, Australian-made, pole-mounted BESS/STATCOM  that improves energy quality, reliability, and efficiency, particularly in fringe-of-grid and renewable-heavy networks.

EcoSTORE MEGA has been designed to meet Australian and international safety and grid compliance standards, including AS/NZS and IEC requirements. The system delivers high efficiency, fast control response and long-term operational reliability in demanding utility environments.

The highly integrated and standardised design simplifies transport, installation, connection and commissioning, while comprehensive deployment and operator training programs support project delivery.

Established nearly a decade ago, EcoJoule Energy is a 100% Australian-owned company providing innovative solutions to help electricity distributors integrate renewable energy and manage grid reliability.

In early 2025, the company secured a $15 million capital investment from Ellerston Capital and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to support the company’s national and international growth ambitions.

For more information and specifications, visit the EcoSTORE MEGA page.

Media enquiries to:
Ben Ready
+61 415 743 838
ben@rgcmm.com.au.

A feeder is only as compliant as its worst phase.

Low-voltage planning has long been able to treat a feeder as a balanced three-phase circuit. For most of the network’s history that was a safe assumption. High penetrations of single-phase distributed generation and single-phase load are ending it, and they do so in a way an aggregate check doesn’t catch.

Voltage compliance is assessed per phase. In Australia, the nominal is 230 V with a range of +10% / −6% (AS60038 and AS61000.300.1), and each phase at the point of supply has to sit inside that range, not the average of the three, each one independently.

Single-phase connections are where this bites. A rooftop inverter or an EV charger connects to one phase, not three. At low penetration the connections diversify across phases and across the day, and the feeder behaves close to balanced. At high penetration that diversity fails. PV exports on the phases it happens to sit on through the middle of the day; EV charging loads other phases through the evening. One phase is pushed toward the upper limit at midday while another is dragged toward the lower limit at the evening peak.

The trap is that the three-phase average can look compliant while an individual phase is in breach. A planner working from aggregate feeder loading, or from a balanced load-flow assumption, sees headroom that isn’t there.

This is not only a high-solar story. Any concentration of single-phase power-electronic load does the same thing from the other direction. EV charging, and increasingly induction cooking, draws hard on whatever phase it happens to be wired to. A network with modest rooftop PV but rising electrification will see the same per-phase divergence, driven by load rather than generation. The mechanism is the connection being single-phase, not whether it imports or exports.

The instinct is to reach for conductor augmentation. Larger conductor lowers impedance, and lower impedance does reduce the magnitude of voltage excursions. That part is real. But it reduces them symmetrically. It does nothing about the asymmetry between phases, and nothing about the time-of-day variation that drives the swing. Conductor is a fixed impedance: it cannot pull a phase down at midday and hold it up at the evening peak. To bring a single over-voltage phase back inside the limit by impedance alone, you would oversize the conductor well beyond the thermal load — paying for capacity you don’t need to address a problem conductor was never the right tool for.

Behind-the-meter batteries are sometimes offered as the answer. For a network planner they are not, because they cannot be centrally controlled, and they are also usually a single phase device, doing which does not fix feeder balance. A customer’s battery cannot be dispatched to hold a phase within limits, and it cannot be counted on for compliance.

A STATCOM put in now is not interim spend to be written off when the larger upgrade arrives.

What corrects a per-phase, time-variable problem is per-phase, dynamic control. An LV D-STATCOM regulates each phase independently and continuously: absorbing reactive power on the phase running high, supplying it on the phase running low, and rebalancing load across the three phases. It tracks the daily cycle rather than being tuned to a single condition.

There is a second consequence worth naming. Because a feeder is limited by its worst-loaded phase, unbalance leaves real capacity stranded, two phases can sit well under their limit while the third sets the constraint. Rebalancing recovers that capacity and lets a network use conductor it already owns to its actual rating. That is what defers augmentation, rather than simply delaying it.

None of this replaces augmentation, and augmentation does not replace it. They sit on the feeder as two layers doing two jobs. New conductor adds thermal capacity and lowers impedance; it does not balance phases, filter harmonics, regulate voltage through the day, or report the power-quality conditions where it sits. Those functions do not arrive with copper, and they do not stop being needed once copper is installed. The capacity an upgrade unlocks tends to fill with more of the single-phase load and generation that drove the divergence in the first place.

So a STATCOM put in now is not interim spend to be written off when the larger upgrade arrives. It is the control layer that keeps a feeder balanced and compliant before augmentation, through it, and after it. Where the constraint is genuinely thermal and the conductor cannot carry the current, augmentation is the right answer. The STATCOM stays in service, doing the work the new conductor was never going to do. The two are complementary by design.

The per-phase compliance trap is not a future problem. It is already visible on high-penetration feeders that pass an aggregate check and fail a per-phase one. Worth checking which of yours do.

Why a 40 kVAr device supports voltage on a feeder carrying far more than 40 kVA, and how much correction to expect

A common question from distribution engineers assessing a low voltage D-STATCOM is how a 40 kVAr device can support voltage on a feeder that carries far more than 40 kVA. The question almost always traces to one assumption: that the device sits in series with the feeder and must carry the full load current, the way a line voltage regulator does.

A shunt-connected D-STATCOM does not work that way. It connects in parallel, carries only its own reactive current, and supports voltage through the reactance between its connection point and the source. This note sets out the mechanism and works a representative example.

Series and shunt connection are different problems

A series voltage regulator is installed in line with the feeder. All feeder current passes through it, so it must be rated for the full through-current, often several hundred amps. Measured against that benchmark, 40 kVAr looks too small to matter.

A shunt D-STATCOM connects across the feeder at a single point. Feeder current does not pass through it. The device carries only the current corresponding to its own rating:

I = Q / (√3 × V) = 40,000 / (√3 × 400) ≈ 58 A
where Q = 40 kVAr, V = 400 V phase to phase

That 58 A is independent of feeder loading. The device is sized to its own reactive current, not to the feeder it supports.

How reactive injection raises voltage

The network behind any connection point can be represented as a source with a series impedance, R + jX, back to it. Current flowing through that impedance produces a voltage difference. The familiar low voltage drop relationship is:

ΔV ≈ (P·R + Q·X) / V

A shunt D-STATCOM supplies reactive power locally, so that reactive power no longer has to be imported through the upstream reactance X. Removing Q from the upstream path removes the Q·X voltage drop it was causing, and the local voltage rises. For a reactive-only device the support reduces to:

ΔV ≈ Q·X / V

Worked example

Consider a 1 MVA distribution transformer feeding a 1 km low voltage feeder on 95 mm² overhead conductor, with the D-STATCOM connected 750 m along the feeder. Representative values:

Transformer reactance	Xtx ≈ 0.008 Ω
Line reactance to the connection point (0.29 Ω/km × 0.75 km)	≈ 0.218 Ω
Total upstream reactance	X ≈ 0.225 Ω

Applying the relationship:

ΔV ≈ Q·X / V = 40,000 × 0.225 / 400 ≈ 22.5 V ≈ 5.6%

The same result follows from the device current and the upstream reactance, which is worth showing because the two routes are the same physics:

ΔV_LL ≈ √3 × I × X = √3 × 58 × 0.225 ≈ 22.5 V

On this feeder, a 40 kVAr device applies about 5.6% voltage correction at its connection point.

It’s important to remember that the STATCOM can both source and sink VARs, so it can move the voltage in either direction, either up or down 22.5V in this simplified case. This allows it to respond to voltage rise from solar, or voltage drop from load, in real time.

The connection point sets the result

The feeder in the example is 1 km long, but the device sits at 750 m. The final 250 m plays no part in the calculation, because the device’s reactive current flows back to the source through the upstream reactance only. Voltage authority is set by the impedance between the device and the source, not by the total feeder length. This is why siting matters: the device belongs where the upstream reactance, and the voltage problem, are greatest. It is also the clearest distinction from a series device, whose effect depends on what lies downstream of it.

Where the relationship applies

The Q·X / V relationship depends on the feeder having meaningful reactance. Overhead open-wire conductor, with an X/R ratio near 1, meets that condition. On low-reactance cable the same kVAr produces little voltage movement, and a D-STATCOM earns its place through phase balancing rather than bulk reactive support.

It is also worth separating the correction the device applies from the total feeder voltage drop. On a feeder with X/R near 1, the real-power drop (P·R) from load current is comparable to the reactive drop, and a reactive device does not act on it. The 5.6% figure is the correction available at the connection point, not the elimination of the feeder’s full drop under load.

In practice. A shunt D-STATCOM provides voltage correction at the point where it is needed, sized to its own reactive current rather than to feeder loading. The EcoVAR adds two capabilities relevant to low voltage feeders: independent phase balancing, which addresses the per-phase voltage problem that symmetric reactive injection cannot, and installation without a feeder outage. On a weak overhead feeder these allow voltage to be corrected at the connection point in place of, or ahead of, conductor augmentation.

EcoJoule’s EcoVAR regulates voltage in parallel — sized below feeder current, installed without an outage, and responding within a single cycle.

As rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles push low-voltage networks beyond the conditions they were designed for, distribution businesses are re-examining how they manage voltage.

These distribution businesses are increasingly turning to low-voltage distribution STATCOMs (D-STATCOMs), like EcoJoule Energy’s EcoVAR, to address constraints that are inherent to traditional series voltage regulators, and do so without taking feeders out of service to install.

Traditional voltage regulators are connected in series with the feeder. The whole feeder current passes through the device, which sets its rating, size and the work required to install it. A STATCOM takes a different approach: it connects in parallel. The feeder current flows past the unit, and only the corrective current flows through it.

How a STATCOM differs from a traditional voltage regulator

• Parallel connection, not series. A series regulator carries the full feeder current. The EcoVAR connects in parallel, so feeder current flows past it and only the corrective current flows through the unit.
• Rated below feeder current, so smaller. Because it carries only the corrective current, a STATCOM can be rated for a fraction of the feeder current it supports. The result is a compact unit that suits an existing pole or enclosure.
• Installed without an outage. The parallel connection means the EcoVAR can be added to a live feeder and commissioned in hours, without the planned supply interruption a series device requires.
• Sub-cycle response. Power-electronic switching corrects voltage within a single cycle — a response far faster than the step changes of mechanical tap-changing regulators.
• Corrects imbalance between phases. A regulator that moves all three phases together cannot fix a feeder where some phases sit above the target voltage and others below — stepping the high phase down drags the low phases further down. The EcoVAR regulates each phase independently and shifts load between phases, bringing all three within limits at once and releasing feeder capacity for more solar.
• Holds its reference under two-way power flow. Traditional regulators reference the “line side voltage” for regulation. When rooftop solar exports and power flows back up the feeder, that reference is lost and the regulator can step the wrong way. A STATCOM sits in parallel, measures the local voltage directly, and injects or absorbs reactive power to hold it, so two-way flow does not disorient it.
• Active harmonic filtering too. Alongside voltage support and phase balancing, the EcoVAR filters harmonics, helping maintain power quality as more inverters and electronic loads connect.

“The network problems behind voltage limits and curtailed solar are real, and they need a device-based fix.
The question for distributors is which fix. A parallel STATCOM does the same regulation work without carrying the feeder load,
without an outage to install, and fast enough to follow conditions in real time.”
Dr Mike Wishart, Chief Executive Officer, EcoJoule Energy

In service across six markets

EcoVAR units are in service addressing voltage problems in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Lithuania, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.

In the United Kingdom, UK Power Networks is operating the EcoVAR on its network through an innovation project, with pole-mounted units installed in Kent. Details are published by UK Power Networks at ukpowernetworks.co.uk.

About EcoJoule Energy

EcoJoule Energy is an Australian energy technology company, established in 2014 and based in Brisbane. It develops technologies for the future grid, including low-voltage distribution STATCOMs (EcoVAR) and battery energy storage systems. EcoJoule’s technology relieves grid congestion and allows solar generation to reach more customers, maximising the use of existing poles and wires so the benefits of the energy transition can flow to all users of the distribution grid.

A plain-language guide to the device that holds voltage steady on the low-voltage grid — and lets existing poles and wires carry more solar.

A distribution STATCOM (D-STATCOM) is a power-electronic device connected to the low-voltage (LV) network to regulate voltage. It does the job of a voltage regulator, but instead of switching taps or capacitor steps, it exchanges reactive power with the grid continuously and adjusts within a fraction of a mains cycle. That speed, and the resolution it brings, is what separates it from conventional correction equipment.

An Advanced Voltage Regulator

At its core, a D-STATCOM is a voltage-source converter. By controlling the magnitude and phase angle of its output voltage relative to the grid, it either sources reactive power to raise local voltage, or sinks reactive power to lower it. There are no discrete steps. The output is variable across its full range, so the converter can hold voltage at a target rather than bracketing it between tap positions.

Advanced LV units control each phase independently. This matters on the LV network, where single-phase rooftop solar, EV charging and uneven load routinely pull the three phases apart. A per-phase controller corrects each phase to its own target instead of applying one average correction across all three.

Sub-Cycle Response and Active Harmonic Filtering

A D-STATCOM samples and adjusts its output many times within a single 50 Hz cycle. This sub-cycle response lets it track fast voltage variations that step-based equipment cannot follow.

The same capability allows it to act as an active harmonic filter. Non-linear loads inject harmonic currents that distort the voltage waveform. Because the converter can shape its output within the cycle, it synthesises a waveform that drives a compensating current — equal in magnitude and opposite in phase to the harmonic content already on the network — so the two cancel at the point of connection. The result is a cleaner voltage waveform without the tuned, passive filter banks that conventional approaches rely on.

Connected in Parallel, Not Series

A D-STATCOM is connected in shunt (parallel) with the network, not in series with the load. It injects current at its point of connection rather than carrying the line current through itself.

This is the reason a relatively low-power STATCOM can have a large effect on voltage. On an electrically weak network — long feeders, small conductors, high source impedance — a modest injection produces a meaningful voltage change. A small shunt device therefore moves voltage far more than its rating alone would suggest, precisely where the network is least able to support itself.

High renewable penetration is changing where instability shows up on the grid. Voltage rise from clustered rooftop solar, imbalance from single-phase connections, and harmonics from inverters now originate inside the LV network, close to the customer. Two factors are driving adoption:

1. Cost. Compared with conductor upgrades, additional transformers, or large centralised compensation, a distributed LV STATCOM is a lower-cost way to manage these conditions — and the EcoVAR installs with no outage required.
2. Location. A shunt LV device applies regulation and reactive power at the source of the problem, on the feeder where the issue arises — rather than generating reactive power upstream and pushing it down the line alongside real power, loading the very conductors it is meant to relieve.

By correcting voltage, balancing phases and filtering harmonics locally, the LV STATCOM frees up capacity on existing poles and wires. That lets more solar generation reach more customers without the cost and disruption of rebuilding the network.