QES is now an official dealer for INVT — Shenzhen INVT Electric, one of the largest industrial automation and variable-frequency drive (VFD) manufacturers in the world. We're stocking and installing three of their solar-pump and VFD ranges across our farming and commercial work. Here's what each one is, where it fits, and why we picked INVT over the alternatives.
Why INVT
INVT has been building industrial drives since 2002. They're an A-share listed company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with over 4 500 employees, 15 subsidiaries, and a sales network covering 100+ countries. Their lab is the only one in the industry with full TUV SUD ACT qualification, UL-WTDP certification and CNAS National Lab status. In practical terms: their drives meet the same engineering standards as the European tier-1 brands (ABB, Schneider, Danfoss) — but the cost-to-South-Africa landed price is significantly better.
We didn't sign up as a dealer lightly. We've been installing INVT drives on farm projects for the last 18 months as our preferred tier-1 option, and the field results — particularly under high-temperature, high-dust, lightning-prone inland SA conditions — gave us the confidence to commit. The official dealership means we now hold local stock, factory-authorised support, and access to the full warranty and after-sales pipeline directly.
The three INVT product lines we install
SP100 — compact solar pump controller (0.75kW – 22kW)
The SP100 is INVT's all-in-one solar pump controller for small to mid-size farm pumps. It's IP66 rated, which means it can be mounted directly underneath the solar panels, outdoors, exposed to weather and dust. No combiner box needed — the SP100 integrates the DC breaker, fuse, surge protection device (SPD) and bus-bar in one unit.
What that means in real terms for a farm install: you get fewer enclosures, less cabling, fewer points of failure, and a much faster install. A standard borehole pump system that would have needed a combiner box, a separate inverter cabinet and external SPD setup now goes into one wall-mounted box at the wellhead.
Other features worth flagging:
- 99.99% MPPT efficiency — squeezes the maximum power out of the array in marginal light (early morning, late afternoon, cloud cover)
- Built-in booster below 4kW — lets the controller start at lower input voltages, reducing the number of solar panels needed for small pumps
- LCD display with running indicator and fault indicator on the front of the unit
- 4G and WiFi modules supported for remote monitoring via the IWO Cloud app on phone or PC
- Hybrid operation — connect a grid line or generator alongside the PV input and the controller auto-balances between them
- DC input up to 900V — supports longer PV strings, which means fewer parallel runs and lower BOS costs
Where the SP100 fits best: borehole pumps, small pivot pumps, dam-fill systems, livestock water supply, domestic farm water. The 0.75kW – 5.5kW models cover most single borehole installations. The 7.5kW – 22kW models handle small pivots and packhouse cleaning water systems.
GD100-PV — industrial-scale solar pump controller (0.4kW – 500kW)
The GD100-PV is INVT's flagship solar pump drive. The power range is enormous — from 0.4kW for a single small irrigation pump up to 500kW for industrial farm pumping. Below 110kW the units are wall-mountable; above that they're floor-mounted in proper cabinets.
Key technical points:
- Up to 900V DC input on the larger units (380V 3-phase output models) — supports very long PV strings and high-voltage arrays
- Advanced MPPT algorithm — INVT's own software tuned for variable irradiance
- Hybrid + auto-switch — solar runs the pump when the sun is up, AC (grid or generator) takes over when it isn't, automatically. The threshold is user-settable
- Multiple pump support — can drive different pump configurations including 220V single-phase pumps with and without capacitors, plus 380V three-phase
- Comprehensive protection — dry-run protection (low-load), over/under-voltage, over-load, lightning and surge, over-temperature, lose-phase
- IP54 cabinet option for the larger units — comes pre-fitted with AC breaker, DC breaker, contactor, SPD, fuse, anti-reverse diode
- GPRS remote monitoring with optional 4G/WiFi datalogger — for sites where you can't be on the farm daily
Where the GD100-PV fits best: centre-pivot irrigation, larger packhouse pumping, multi-pump systems on big operations, deep boreholes (45kW+ submersible pumps). The 30kW – 250kW units are our most common spec for working commercial farms.
GD270 — general VFD for fans and pumps (1.5kW – 800kW)
The GD270 isn't a solar product — it's a high-efficiency variable-frequency drive for general fan and pump applications. We use it for the parts of a farm that aren't solar-direct: packhouse cooling fans, cold-room compressors, dairy chillers, processing plant pumping, ventilation systems.
What makes it interesting for farming and commercial customers:
- ECO mode — INVT's energy-saving algorithm. On a typical 4kW packhouse fan running at 40% load 24/7, it saves around 8 100 kWh/year compared to a fixed-speed motor. That's the difference between paying R30 000/year in energy and paying R12 000
- Sleep / wake function — automatically stops the motor at very low load instead of running it at part-speed, then restarts when demand returns
- Multi-pump switchover — manages up to 8 pumps in cyclic or fixed-pump-priority mode, ideal for water reticulation across multiple zones
- Fire ride-through — keeps emergency ventilation fans running even when other internal protection trips, ignoring "stop" commands during a fire alarm
- Frost proofing — if ambient drops below a set threshold, the drive will trickle current to keep the motor warm and prevent water in the pump from freezing
- Pipe-break detection + soft-filling — protects against water-hammer when filling empty pipework
- Thickened protective coating on the PCB — passes three-proofing (dust, moisture, salt mist) standards, which matters for any agri site near a coast or in heavy ag-chemical environments
Where the GD270 fits best: packhouse ventilation, cold-room compressor drives, milk parlour vacuum pumps, processing-line motor control, dairy chillers. We pair the GD270 with the GD100-PV in projects where part of the load runs from solar (pumps) and part needs intelligent fixed-grid motor control (refrigeration, ventilation).
Why this matters for South African farms specifically
Three things make the INVT range a good fit for inland SA conditions:
1. Heat and altitude tolerance. Standard operating range is −10°C to +50°C. Above 40°C ambient the drive derates 1% per degree, so it doesn't fail — it just runs a touch slower. For highveld summers and packhouse roof installs (where ambient can easily hit 45°C), this matters.
2. Hybrid solar-plus-grid-plus-genset switching. The SP100 and GD100-PV both have native hybrid mode — solar runs the pump when PV is sufficient, grid or generator takes over when it isn't, automatically. No external transfer switch, no manual changeover, no operator intervention. For farms where the grid is unreliable (most of inland SA), this is genuinely useful.
3. Remote monitoring on cellular. Every controller supports 4G or WiFi connection to the IWO Cloud platform. You see voltage, current, power, runtime, fault history from your phone. For a farm with multiple boreholes spread across hundreds of hectares, this turns a daily inspection round into a five-minute phone check.
What a typical install costs (indicative)
Hardware list-prices in 2026 land roughly as follows for the most-installed sizes. Note these are drive-only — the full system cost includes panels, mounting, cabling, switchgear and installation labour:
| Product | Power | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| SP100 | 2.2 kW | Single borehole, livestock water supply |
| SP100 | 7.5 kW | Mid-size borehole, small dam-fill system |
| SP100 | 22 kW | Multiple pumps, larger packhouse water |
| GD100-PV | 37 kW | Small pivot, deeper borehole |
| GD100-PV | 75 kW | Mid-size pivot pump |
| GD100-PV | 132 kW | Large pivot, multi-pump irrigation |
| GD270 | 15 kW | Packhouse ventilation fan bank |
| GD270 | 45 kW | Cold-room compressor + chiller |
Send us your pump motor rating (kW), your daily run hours and your current setup (Eskom / diesel / both) and we'll come back inside 24 hours with a sized SP100 or GD100-PV configuration, an installed-price estimate and a payback period based on your tariff.
The QES side of the install
Being an official INVT dealer means three things on our side:
- Local stock. We hold the most-installed SP100 and GD100-PV sizes (2.2kW – 75kW) on the shelf. No 6-week import lead times for typical farm jobs
- Factory-authorised support. Warranty claims, technical questions and firmware updates go directly through INVT's official channel — not through a re-seller chain
- Trained team. Our installers have completed INVT's commissioning training. Every install includes setup of the cloud platform, mobile app pairing and a handover walkthrough
If you're considering solar-direct pumping, replacing a diesel pump with a solar VSD, or just want better speed control on your packhouse fans and chillers, we'd like to talk. Free assessment, no pressure, indicative figures in 24 hours.