Large Battery Storage System Passes First Major Test

Power in Reserve: Large Battery Storage System Passes First Major Test

The energy transition is increasing the risk of fluctuations in regional electrical grids. Large batteries will provide stability in the future. They can return stored power to the grid or temporarily supply power to final customers. A mobile battery storage system with 1 megawatt of power, one of the largest in Germany, is located at the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg. The researchers demonstrated its use in a major test during which they even fully disconnecting their research facility from the grid. PAGE 24

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How can smart infrastructures compensate for the fluctuating Companies that want to stay competitive have to organize their availability of renewable energy sources? How can energy manufacturing efficiently, especially wherever resource and energy consumption be cut an additional twenty percent without consumption is concerned. Researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF are reducing output? Dynamic energy management is the solution. analyzing the locations of the levers worth adjusting. PAGE 20 PAGE 36 Storage Systems for the Energy Transition: Fraunhofer IFF Successfully Tests a Large Battery in Magdeburg

The energy transition increases the risk of drawn from the conventional transmission fluctuations in regional electrical grids. Large grid. batteries will help stabilize them in the future. They can resupply stored power to the grid or The Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg demon- temporarily supply end customers. One of the strated how this functions in reality In a largest mobile storage systems in Germany successful large-scale test, the researchers From l. to r.: Prof. Michael Schenk (Fraunhofer IFF), Sax- with an output of one megawatt is located at disconnected their facility fully from the ony-Anhalt Minister President Haseloff and Chanyul Lee the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg. On Octo- public grid and only used a large battery to (SK innovation) starting the test of the large ber 2, 2014, researchers demonstrated its use supply it with power. Research work proceed- battery in Magdeburg. in the presence of Saxony-Anhalt Minister ed normally in the building, which houses President Reiner Haseloff. To do so, they even approximately one hundred fifty employees disconnected their research facility completely as well as offices and various laboratories. from the grid. According to Minister President Reiner Factories need power. Their assembly lines Haseloff, “The research being done at the Since the institute’s facility is already have to run, sometimes around the clock. Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg shows that we equipped with a smart energy management Ideally, the energy for this comes from are well on the way to developing and using system, the Fraunhofer IFF also has an idea test environment for its large storage system. Dr. Przemyslaw Komarnicki, who is working with his team on storage management and grid integration at the Fraunhofer IFF, explains, “We intend to study a broad range of research issues. We are interested in the cost effective and technically trouble-free use of electrical energy storage systems.” The mobile large battery is intended for use in companies and their supply networks, for instance at the energy park operator Enerparc AG. (akw/mar)

Over ninety invited guests and staffers from the Fraunhofer Fliesstext mit ca. 2000 Zeichen. IFF intently watching the test of the large battery …

renewables. Conventional power plants have efficient energy storage systems.“ Haseloff to fill in, however, whenever certain weather pointed out that the Fraunhofer IFF’s battery conditions prevent wind turbines and solar storage system with an output of one mega- cells from delivering sufficient power. Efficient watt comes from the South Korean company energy storage systems are a solution: They SK innovation. “On my trip to South Korea in store excess power from renewables and re- recent weeks, we reached an agreement with supply it to the grid when voltage fluctuates. company representatives to collaborate on What is more, they could be doubly valuable projects with even far higher storage capaci- to companies because they enable the use ties in Halle and Magdeburg.” The state of of inexpensive store power to cover high Saxony-Anhalt is supporting the Fraunhofer consumption periods during which additional IFF’s research project with one million euros. www.webadresse.de expensive power would otherwise have to be

News 5 Inside the large battery: Dr. Przemyslaw Komarnicki ex- plaining its working principle to Saxony-Anhalt Minister Prssident Reiner Haseloff. Photo: Fraunhofer IFF Power in Reserve: Large Battery Storage System Passes First Major Test

By Manfred Schulze

The fat red button on a console in front of battery assemblies are housed here, twelve tem can handle that for around four hours. around one hundred guests and staffers individual modules always interconnected in Then it has to go back on line. boosts the adrenaline level a bit. “It is the one block. “Each of the cells delivers 3.7 volts first public test of the new large battery stor- and is connected in a series. The modules, on “Naturally, the storage system is much more age system we have been assembling since the other hand, can also be connected or dis- than a pure emergency power unit. The the summer of 2014. Naturally, something connected individually so that the entire sys- South Korean technology group SK innova- unforeseeable can always happen,” says Dr. tem does not have to be shut down in the tion has designed it not only to absorb peak Przemyslaw Komarnicki, who is heading the event of a local failure,” explains Dr. Chris- loads like a smart backup battery but also to project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory toph Wenge, on hand at the battery storage help stabilize the public grid as needed,” says Operation and Automation IFF. Of course, ev- system as a contact during the large-scale Komarnicki. That is why it has also been de- erything was tested repeatedly in advance test. signed for one megawatt of power. Units in trial runs but everyone is familiar with the with five and even thirty megawatts are al- vagaries of actual demonstration, particu- The auditorium does not go dark; the lights ready being planned for use in the field. larly when the state’s minister president him- do not even flicker slightly when the power Pushing the second red button is intended to self will be pushing the button and, thus, dis- flow reverses on the schematic once the but- demonstrate this. This will reconnect the grid, connecting the entire institute’s power supply ton has been pushed. Instead of flowing from demonstrating that the storage system lives from the grid. “I think everything will go per- the grid and into the battery, electricity now up to its official name, Smart Grid Energy fectly, though,” says the expert confidently. flows from the storage system to the con- Storage System (SGESS), a smart storage sys- sumers in the institute. The computers and tem for convergent supply infrastructures. A freight container with loud humming in- machinery there consume around 120 kilo side stands right behind the Fraunhofer IFF’s watts of power. The system also has to han- The storage system actually continues dis- Virtual Development and Training Centre in dle rapid load variations, when the air com- charging when reconnected. The remaining Magdeburg. Large control cabinets stand in pressor starts for instance. Even though a sixty plus percent would still be enough for a the front, black boxes connected with thick small solar collector on the roof with a peak good two hours, although part of the power, power cables are stacked on both sides to- of ten kilowatts supplies everything the sunny 100 kilowatts of power, now additionally ward the back. A total of eight lithium-ion fall day yields, the large energy storage sys- flows into the grid of Magdeburg’s public

Grid costs: Distributed siting of larger » numbers of storage systems would definitely reduce the need for investments in new lines. « Dr. Christoph Wenge, Fraunhofer IFF

Research and Development 23 The Fraunhofer IFF’s large battery storage system in

Magdeburg’s Port of Science. Photo: Fraunhofer IFF

utilities. Whenever much wind is produced 0.5 megawatt hours, approximately as much imagining. The software system that will con- or loads are weak, the power would flow as 760 average car batteries. Although it is trol the large battery storage system and through the smart control system differently: significantly lighter than lead, the storage sys- eventually be implemented in a complete dy- The storage system would charge and simul- tem still weighs in at twenty-six tons. namic energy management system will now taneously relieve the grid of excess power. be developed and tested at the Fraunhofer Even though the use of large battery storage IFF in the coming months. Buffering peak loads in companies, supply- systems will probably remain limited to the ing operating reserves during fluctuations in aforementioned use cases for the time be- Przemyslaw Komarnicki is completely relaxed the grid, and buffering switching operations ing, costs can be cut tremendously nonethe- a few minutes after the test has ended, while are potential use cases of large battery stor- less. “Peak loads are always the most expen- most of the guests are taking a close look at age systems already possible today. Research sive part of the energy bill in companies. If the storage system and having it explained to on long-term storage systems for the energy we succeed in cutting just these peaks, dou- them. Everything went as planned, at least transition are is still needed, though. What is ble-digit percentages can definitely be cut off the guests did not notice otherwise. “The oc- more, their cost of around € 1000 per kilo- power bills in individual cases. The effects for currence of surprises in research now and watt hour of storage capacity currently make grid costs are even more significant. Distrib- again and the need to react quickly is routine them too expensive for purely commercial uted siting of larger numbers of storage sys- for us,” he says. use. Chanyul Lee, CEO from SK innovation, tems would definitely reduce the puts this in perspective, though. “We are need for investments in new working intensively on the technical improve- lines,” explains Wenge. ment of batteries since much is still possible, Not to mention the both in terms of energy density and price,” system’s reliability in he says. At any rate, the new large energy general: Costs for Dr. Przemyslaw Komarnicki storage system’s lithium-ion cells have numer- companies con- Fraunhofer IFF ous advantages over the batteries common fronted by a Process and Plant Engineering earlier, most notably in terms of durability power failure and load capability. They can be charged and without backup Phone +49 391 4090-373 discharged several thousand times. Dr. Chris- would quickly [email protected] toph Wenge calculates the present capacity is mount beyond

24 IFFocus 2/2014