A battery storage power plant is a form of storage power plant, which uses batteries on an electrochemical basis for energy storage. Unlike common storage power plants, such as the pumped storage power plants with capacities up to 1000 MW, the benefits of battery storage power plants move in the range of a few kW up to the MW range - as of 2017, the largest installed system has a storage capacity of 300 MWh. Battery storage power plants, like all storage power plants, primarily serve to cover peak load and in networks with insufficient control power and the grid stabilization. Small banks of rechargeable batteries with a few kWh of storage capacity, are mostly in the private sector operated in conjunction with wind turbines or similarly sized photovoltaic systems to daytime bring revenue surpluses in yield poorer or unproductive hours in the evening or at night, and to strengthen their own consumption. Sometimes battery storage power stations are built with flywheel storage power systems in order to conserve battery power. Flywheels can handle rapid fluctuations better.
Video Battery storage power station
Construction
Structurally battery storage power plants and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are comparable, although the former are larger. The batteries are housed for security in their own warehouses or in containers. As with a UPS, the problem is that electrochemical energy is stored or emitted in the form of direct current DC, while electric power networks are usually operated with Alternating current AC voltage. For this reason, additional inverters are needed to connect the battery storage power plants to the high voltage network. This kind of power electronics include GTO thyristors, commonly used in the high-voltage direct current transmission (HVDC). Various accumulator systems may be used depending on the power-to-energy ratio, the expected life time and, of course, the costs. In the 1980s, lead-acid batteries were used for the first battery-storage power plants. During the next few decades, nickel-cadmium and sodium-sulfur battery were increasingly used. Since 2010, more and more utility-scale battery storage plants rely on lithium-ion batteries thanks to the fast decrease in the cost of this technology, driven by the electric automotive industry. This is the case of the battery Park Schwerin, the battery storage in Dresden or the storage of BYD in Hong Kong. Lithium-ion batteries are mainly used, some redox flow system have emerged and lead-acid batteries are still used in small budget applications. There are numerous suppliers of large battery storage.
Maps Battery storage power station
Operating Characteristics
Since they do not require any mechanical movement, battery storage power plants allow extremely short control times and start times, in the range of few 10s of ms at full load. Thanks to that reactivity, they can shave power peaks in the range of minutes, but they can also dampen the fast oscillations (second) that appear when electric power networks are operated close to their maximum capacity. These instabilities consist in voltage fluctuations with periods of up to several 10 seconds and can soar in worst cases to high amplitudes, which can lead to regional blackouts. A battery storage power plants properly dimensioned can efficiently counteract these oscillations. Therefore, applications are found primarily in those regions where electrical power systems are operated at full capacity, causing a risk in the grid stability. Large storage plants (Na-S)can also be used in combination with (Na-S)intermittent renewable energy source in standalone hybrid micro-grids.
Some systems, operating at high temperature (Na-S) or using corrosive components are subject to failure even if they are not used (calendar ageing). Other technologies suffer from deterioration caused by charge-discharge cycles (cycle ageing), especially at high charging rates. These two types of ageing cause a loss of performance (capacity or voltage decrease), overheating and may eventually lead to critical failure (electrolyte leaks, fire, explosion). In order to prevent the loss of performance due to ageing, some batteries can undergo maintenance operation. For example, non-sealed Lead-acid batteries produce hydrogen and oxygen from the aqueous electrolyte when overcharged. The water has to be refilled regularly to avoid damage to the battery and the inflammable gases have to be vented out to avoid explosion risks. However, this maintenance has a cost and recent batteries, such as Li-Ion, are designed to have a long lifespan without maintenance. Therefore, most of the current systems are composed of securely sealed battery packs which are electronically monitored and replaced once their performance falls below a given threshold.
Installation examples
Some of the largest battery storage power plants are exemplified below.
Chino Battery Storage Project
Operated from 1988 to 1997 by the Southern California Edison in the Californian city Chino, the battery storage power station served primarily for grid stabilization and could be used by frequent power outages in the region as a static var compensator and black start of non-black bootable power plants. The plant had a peak power of 14 MW, which was, however, far too little for effective stabilization in the net of Southern California Edison, and a storage capacity of 40 MWh. The system consisted of 8,256 lead-acid batteries in eight strands, which were divided into two halls.
Golden Valley Electric - Fairbanks
One of the largest and located with Stand 2010 operating system is operated by the Golden Valley Electric in Fairbanks. The power grid in Alaska is operated due to the large distances as stand-alone grid with no direct connection to neighboring North American interconnections within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. The battery storage power plant with a maximum capacity of 27 MW is used to stabilize the grid, covering high peak and reactive power compensation. The plant was put into operation in 2003 and consists of 13,760 nickel-cadmium batteries in four strands. The NiCd cells are manufactured by Saft Groupe S.A., the inverters by ABB Group.
BYD in Hongkong
The Chinese company BYD operates a battery banks with 40 MWh capacity and 20 MW maximum power in Hong Kong. The large storage is used to cushion load peaks in energy demand. Likewise, the storage can contribute to the frequency stabilization in the net. The battery is made up of a total of almost 60,000 individual lithium iron phosphate cells, each with 230 amp hour capacity. The project was started in October 2013, and went online in June 2014. The actual installation of the storage lasted three months. The use of price differences between loading and unloading by day and night electricity, an avoided grid expansion for peak loads and revenue for grid services such as Frequency stabilization enable economic operation without subsidies. Currently 3 locations for a 1,000 MW peak power to 200 MWh capacity storage power plant to be examined.
Battery storage power station Schwerin
In Schwerin, Germany the electricity supplier WEMAG operates a lithium-ion battery storage to compensate for short-term power fluctuations. Supplier of battery storage power station is the Berlin company Younicos. The South Korean company Samsung SDI supplied the lithium-ion cells. The memory has a capacity of 5 MWh and an output of 5 MW was in September 2014 in operation. The lithium-ion battery storage consists of 25,600 lithium manganese cells and is about five medium-voltage transformers with both the regional distribution connected as well with the nearby 380 kV high-voltage grid.
Photovoltaic and hybrid power plant
The existing photovoltaic power plant Alt Daber near Wittstock in Brandenburg, Germany received a battery storage of 2 MWh. A special feature is that this is a turnkey solution supplied and installed in containers, for immediate use on site without major construction work. The storage uses lead-acid batteries.
Hybrid Battery power plant Braderup
Since July 2014, the energy storage company Nord GmbH & Co. KG has been operating the largest hybrid batteries in Europe in Braderup (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). The System consists of a lithium-ion battery storage (2 MW power 2 MWh storage) and a vanadium flow battery storage (330 kW power, 1 MWh storage capacity). The lithium-ion modules used are from Sony, the flow battery is made by Vanadis Power GmbH.
The storage system is connected to the local community wind park (18 MW installed capacity). Depending on wind strength and charging status of each battery a system developed by Bosch distributes the energy generated by the wind turbines to the right battery. Bosch is also responsible for project implementation and system integration. The hybrid battery is connected to the power grid by a ten-kilometer long underground cable. In case of a network congestion the batteries buffer the energy of the wind farm and feed it back into the grid at a convenient time later. With this method, a shutdown of wind turbines can be avoided during times of network congestion so that the energy of the wind is not wasted.
Battery storage Dresden
Stadtwerke Dresden, Germany (Drewag) have taken a battery storage with a peak power of 2 MW online on March 17, 2015. The costs amounted to 2.7 million euros. lithium polymer batteries are being used. The batteries including the control system are deployed in two 13 m long containers and can store a total of 2.7 MWh. The system is designed to compensate for peak power generation of a nearby solar plant.
Battery storage Feldheim
In Feldheim in Brandenburg, Germany, a battery storage with a capacity of 10 MW and a storage capacity of 6.5 MWh was put into operation in September, 2015. The project cost 12.8 million euros. The storage provides energy for the power grid to compensate for fluctuations caused by wind and solar power plants. The store is operated by the company Energiequelle.
Evonik battery storage
Evonik is planning to build six battery storage power plants with a capacity of 15 MW to be put into operation in 2016 and 2017. They are to be situated in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany at the power plant sites Herne, Lünen and Duisburg-Walsum and in Bexbach, Fenne and Weiher in the Saarland.
Grand Ridge Power plant in Illinois and Beech Ridge, West Virginia, USA
The largest grid storage batteries in the United States include the 31.5 MW battery at Grand Ridge Power plant in Illinois and the 31.5 MW battery at Beech Ridge, West Virginia. Both using lithium ion batteries.
400 MWh Southern California Edison project
Under construction in 2015 is the 400 MWh (100 MW for 4 hours) Southern California Edison project. Developed by AES Energy it is a lithium-ion battery system. Southern California Edison found the prices for battery storage comparable with other electricity generators.
52 MWh project on Kauai, Hawaii
In 2017, Tesla built a 52 MWh project on Kauai, Hawaii to entirely time shift a 13 MW solar farm's output to the evening. The aim is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels on the island.
250 MWh Indonesia
At present (2/2016) is under construction a 250 MWh battery storage in Indonesia. There are about 500 villages in Indonesia which should be supplied, so far they depend on the power supply of petroleum. In past the prices fluctuated greatly and there was often power outages. Now the power will be generated through wind and solar power.
Battery Storage Notrees, Texas, 36 MW
One battery is in Notrees, Texas (36 MW for 40 minutes using lead-acid batteries).
Battery storage with 13 MWh in Germany with worn batteries
A 13 MWh battery made of worn batteries from electric cars is being constructed in Germany, with an expected second life of 10 years, after which they will be recycled.
53 MWh in Ontario
In Ontario, Canada, a battery storage with 53 MWh capacity and 13 MW of power is established by the end of 2016. The Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché supplies the batteries now. Deltro Energy Inc. will plan and build the plant. The order was placed by the network operator IESO. The energy storage are used to provide fast grid services, mainly for voltage and reactive power control. In Ontario and the surrounding area there are many wind and solar power plants, whereby the power supply varies widely.
Storage in southern England with special control
In southern England a battery storage with a capacity of 0.6 MWh and 0.3 MW power was installed for demonstration purposes, made up of 1400 lithium cells installed in a container, with a special feature being the control of the storage. Whereas usually a battery storage uses only revenue model, the provision of control energy, which is a very small market, this storage uses three revenue models. The storage has been installed next to a solar system. This way the solar system can be designed larger than the grid power actually permits in the first revenue model. The storage accepts a peak input of the solar system, thus avoiding the cost of a further grid expansion. The second model allows taking up peak input from the power grid and feeding it back to stabilize the grid when necessary. The third model is storing energy and feeding it into the grid at peak prices. The store received an award for top innovation.
South Korea
Since January 2016 in South Korea three battery storage power plants are in operation. There are two new systems, a 24 MW system with 9 MWh and a 16 MW system with 6 MWh. These two uses batteries based on lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide and supplement a few months older system with 16MW and 5MWh whose batteries are based on lithium titanate oxide. Together the systems have a capacity of 56 MW and serve the South Korean utility company Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for frequency regulation. The storage comes from the company Kokam. After completion in 2017, the system should have a power of 500 MW. The three already installed storage reduce annual fuel costs by an estimated 13 million US dollars, as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Thus the saved fuel costs will exceed the cost of battery storage significantly.
Storage for Aboriginal community in Australia
An existing system in an Aboriginal community in Australia consisting of a combination photovoltaic system and diesel generator will be extended by a lithium-ion battery to a hybrid system. The battery has a capacity of about 2 MWh and a power of 0.8 MW. The batteries store the excess solar power and take over the previously network-forming functions such as network management and network stabilization of diesel generators. Thus, the diesel generators can be switched off during the day, which leads to cost reduction. Moreover, the share of renewable energy rises in the hybrid system significantly. The system is part of a plan to transform the energy systems of indigenous communities in Australia.
Storage for Azores island of Graciosa
On the Azores island of Graciosa a 3.2 MWh storage was installed. Along with a 1 MW photovoltaic plant and a 4.5 MW wind farm, the island is almost completely independent of the previously used diesel generators. The old power plant only serves as a backup system in the event that power from solar and wind power plant can not be generated over a longer time because of bad weather. The sharp decline of expensive diesel imports means that electricity is cheaper than before. The so generated profit will each divided in half between the investor of the new plant and the end users. More Azores islands are to follow.
80 MWh of storage in California
Tesla installed a grid storage facility for the Southern California Edison with a capacity of 80 MWh at a power of 20 MW between September 2016 and December 2016. This means that the storage unit (1/2017) is currently one of the largest accumulator batteries on the market. Tesla installed 400 Powerpack-2 modules at the Mira Loma transformer station in California. The capacity serves to store energy at a low network load and then to feed this energy back into the grid at peak load. Prior to this, gas-fired power stations were used.
300 MWh storage in Japan
Mitsubishi installed a storage facility in Buzen, Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan with 300 MWh capacity and 50 MW power. The storage is used to stabilize the network to compensate for fluctuations caused by renewable energies. The accumulator is in the power range of pumped storage power plants. The batteries are installed in 252 containers. The plant occupies an area of 14,000 square meters.
129 MWh storage in Australia
Tesla, Inc. built the Hornsdale Power Reserve adjacent to the Hornsdale wind farm. As of December 2017 it is promoted as the largest lithium-ion battery in the world. It has two sections; a 70 MW running for 10 minutes, and a 30 MW with a 3 hour capacity. Samsung 21700-size cells are used.
It is operated by Tesla and provides a total of 129 megawatt-hours (460 GJ) of storage capable of discharge at 100 megawatts (130,000 hp) into the power grid. The system helps to prevent load-shedding blackouts and provide stability to the grid (grid services) while other generators can be started in the event of sudden drops in wind or other network issues. It was built in less than 100 days counting from 29 September 2017, when a grid connection agreement was signed with ElectraNet, and some units were operational. The battery construction was completed and testing began on 25 November 2017. It was connected to the grid on 1 December 2017. During two days in January 2018 where South Australia was hit by price spikes, the battery made its owners an estimated 1M AUD as they sold power from the battery to the grid for a price of around 14k AUD/MWh.
Largest grid batteries
Market development
In the US, the market for storage power plants in 2015 increased by 243 percent compared to 2014. In 2016, the UK grid operator National Grid posted independent from technology 200 MW of control power to increase system stability. In this case, only battery storage power plants won the auction.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia