Justin Tyers • 21 Nov 2025
Uninterruptible power for pet care provider
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Two years are required to perfect De Colțești Brânză Extramaturată de Trascău – a slow-aged, hard cheese. During that time the maturation process is monitored constantly.
“It takes over 10 litres of milk to produce 1 kg of cheese;” says Marius Chiorean, Director General at De Colțești .“The process for this cheese starts with fresh cow’s milk, collected daily from local farms. After coagulation, cutting, pressing, and brining, the wheels are aged in controlled conditions, and manually cared for week after week – turned, rubbed, and monitored. The result is a complex, nutty, intensely aromatic cheese that truly reflects the landscape and patience behind it.”
For cheesemaker De Colțești – who are located în the heart of the Trascău Mountains, in Alba County, Romania – the process of making fine cheeses has until now been beset by the additional challenges of serious instability on the local power grid. Frequent power outages and voltage drops affect production, refrigeration, and machinery continuity.
Founded in 1994 as a small artisan cheese producer with a deep respect for raw materials the company has grown into a team of around 70 dedicated people who specialise in matured cheeses, using 100% natural ingredients and traditional, slow-aging methods. Annual production is around 700 tonnes and Brânză Extramaturată de Trascău is the jewel in the crown among their premium cheeses.
The power of nature
De Colțești recently switched to solar power to ensure that their process can continue seamlessly, without power interruption, and to avoid the use of fossil fuels and a costly generator.
“We chose to invest in a solar power system with high-capacity storage from Victron because we needed independence, stability, and efficiency;” says Marius.Their energy system employs 12 x Quattro inverter/chargers. Groups of three Quattro’s have been configured for three-phase output. Four sets of three 15 kVA inverter/chargers have been paralleled to provide 144 kW / 180 kVA inverter power and 2400A charging capacity.
Significant roofing area on their extensive factory facility, and a large site has allowed the installation of an extensive ground- and roof-mounted PV array capable of providing 500kWp. Surplus power can be fed back to the grid thanks to a significant utility-cable upgrade.
Energy storage for the factory’s own use is provided by 96 Pytes V5 LIFEPO4 batteries with a capacity of over 500kWh.
Uninterrupted remote power
The main objective with this installation was to provide an uninterrupted power system for the entire factory production. Consultant technician Daniel Szomboti of Panouri Cluj says: Victron inverters were chosen to provide seamless UPS capabilities – and they can be retrofitted to work with nearly any existing PV system, offering greater flexibility and long-term value.
Careful planning
“The project was carefully planned well in advance to minimise any impact on cheese production. The facility can’t operate without electricity for extended periods, and even slight fluctuations in room temperature can alter the composition and taste of the matured cheese worth hundreds of thousands of euros – so precision and continuity are critical.“To ensure reliability, new grid cable were installed in parallel with the existing ones – providing a much-needed upgrade to the facility’s electrical infrastructure. This was especially important given the recent installation of a 500 kW solar system, which the previous grid connection would not have been able to support.“To minimise disruption, switchover to the new system was carried out during a single night, one weekend. Teams worked simultaneously at both ends to connect the new Victron system to the national grid. The local electricity supplier was also involved, and once the Victron system was operational and no longer restricted by the previous setup, they replaced the existing transformer with a modern, higher-capacity model.”
Two Carlo Gavazzi energy meters for grid and PV inverters were installed, together with electrical components from Schrack Technik – who reviewed the system design.
Off-site system build
The system was built into a container which was key to minimising disruption at the De Colțești premises. Panouri Cluj electricians and technicians can mount devices and cabinets, and make connections in an unhurried environment, allowing engineers to carry out final tests before the system even leaves their warehouse. On arrival at the De Colțești premises even very large systems like this one become more like a plug-and-play installation, which is evidenced in the extraordinarily slick single-night installation time!
Installation team left to right: Daniel Sirbu – Electrician; Alex Morar – Electrical engineer; Tirath Ram – Technician; Baldev Raj – Technician.
Credit also goes to the external team who assisted Project Manager Daniel Szomboti with this faultless operation – they were: Dumitrascu Vlad – Electrical Engineer at Schrack Technik; and Dragos Spataru – Storage engineer at Fabrica de Baterii
Victron Remote Management
Remote site management is available to engineers using the internet based platform Victron Remote Management. In the early days of a system going live – and at any time later – it’s valuable to have instant access to system data; to be able to see that everything is working as expected; and to have the ability to control any device without visiting site. Live and historic electrical data can be searched in close detail, across all parts of the harvest storage and use of energy; as well as monitoring the ‘bigger picture’, graphically, for any period at-a-glance. (Engineers monitoring multiple or even hundreds of systems can get up to date with VRMs latest developments for ‘fleet’ management here.)
Speaking about the new installation and the part it plays in De Colțești cheese production, Marius says: “The results have been excellent: since installation, our energy supply has been constant, we’ve reduced diesel generator use drastically, and we now have a resilient, smart energy system that fits our needs perfectly. For us, sustainability isn’t a trend – it’s part of our philosophy. We make natural cheeses using traditional methods, and we value local, responsible production. Using clean energy fits perfectly into this vision and helps us walk the talk when we say we care about the land, the animals, and the people behind each product.”
Alongside the Brânză Extramaturată, our best-selling cheeses include semi-hard cheese (a younger variety), and several variations with truffle, smoked oak, or mountain herbs.
Our primary market is Romania to premium retail, specialty shops, and the catering industry – but we have growing interest from across Europe.
Let’s take a look inside the De Colțești factory and watch the cheesmakers at work:
From this drone footage by Panouri Cluj we can see how solar energy is the natural solution for power supply – especially when you are located far from the mains power station:
