German grid operators TenneT, Gasunie Deutschland and Thyssengas have unveiled plans for coupling electricity and gas grids through a power-to-gas pilot plant in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The consented 100MW facility could go live in 2022 and will be the largest of its kind in Germany, the partners said.
The project will give the companies their first experience with power-to-gas facilities on an industrial scale, they added.
It will be built near TenneT’s substations in Diele and Conneforde, which primarily collect and distribute offshore wind energy from the North Sea.
By converting green electricity into gas, the project dubbed “Element One” will develop new storage capacities for renewable power and will help bring together the energy, transport and industrial sectors, the partners said.
The gas produced could be transported to the Ruhr region through existing pipelines.
It could also be made available to the transport sector via hydrogen filling stations and to industrial consumers through storage caverns, the grid operators said.
TenneT executive Lex Hartman said: “The ability to store large volumes of renewable electricity will reduce the load on the power grid. That, in turn, helps us limit the expensive curtailment of wind turbines and make the power supply more reliable.”
The Veja Mate offshore wind farm (pictured) delivers electricity to the grid via the Diele onshore substation.