Turning renewables into grid stabilizers – Vattenfall, Nordex, CC4E

The full ranking will appear in the Energy Storage special issue. Last week we presented a thermoelectric energy storage approach by MAN Energy Solutions and yesterday we highlighted third place in our ranking – an open source software platform for energy management systems.

And now …

#2 Vattenfall, Nordex, CC4E

Turning renewables into grid stabilizers 

The challenge posed by the fluctuating nature of renewable energy has caused concern for network operators for some time but has also opened up a market for storage system suppliers. With ever-increasing renewables penetration, fossil fuel generators that can provide grid stabilizing functions, electricity markets, energy providers and grid operators are partnering with researchers to find cheaper and more sustainable solutions.

In an attempt to turn renewable energy resources from a liability to an asset, in terms of grid stability, Swedish power company Vattenfall – in partnership with Nordex Energy GmbH and the Competence Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CC4E) at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences – collocated a lithium-ion storage system with the Curslack wind park in northern Germany.

The wind farm boasts a power output of 12.6 MW and since November has been equipped with a 720 kW/792 kWh lithium-ion storage system. Wind turbines charge the batteries and feed into the grid via a shared access point, using a specialized load management system.

By collocating the wind park and battery, the researchers used wind energy to provide primary balancing power as well as a spinning reserve for which the project aims to develop and test business models. Looking further ahead, the team wants to provide re-dispatching power and reactive power with their system. Technical viability is only one aspect of the project, the team is also considering market regulations that would benefit such applications.

While this project charges the battery and feeds wind power into the grid, the team behind it says the research that results from its operation will benefit the solar industry too. PV struggles with the same issues of fluctuation and could also benefit from collocation with storage systems. Various forms of grid ancillary services would be offered in the same way by solar-plus-storage projects.

The Vattenfall project runs under the auspices of the NEW 4.0 Norddeutsche EnergieWende collaborative scheme. Accordingly, 60 partners –comprising economic, scientific and political actors – have laid out a roadmap to source 100% of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein’s electricity demand from renewables.

Jury comments:

Julian Jansen: “The NEW 4.0 project is at the forefront of bringing together key stakeholders from across the energy industry to help shape how a future decentralized, low-carbon, digital and customer-centric energy system may work.”

Logan Goldie-Scott: “Energy storage is making possible truer competition between renewable energy and thermal assets across more time frames. Pilots such as this will help build out the use case.”

Florian Mayr: “[The project is an] holistic approach to proactively push for a market framework that would allow to further monetize the value of storage. Although in [its] pilot phase, the approach and the specific topic are relevant for industry and [the] energy transition.”

5 March 2019