RWE has started construction of a 117MW battery project in Germany that will support its hydropower plants.
The battery will be located at the energy supplier’s power plants in Lingen, in Lower Saxony and Werne in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The planned system comprises 420 lithium-ion battery racks, housed in 47 overseas shipping containers spread across two RWE power stations.
The system at the Gersteinwerk in Werne will have a capacity of 72MW while the one at the Emsland station in Lingen will have 45MW.
The batteries will be virtually coupled with RWE’s run-of-river power stations along the river Mosel.
By raising or decreasing the flow-through at these power stations, RWE can make additional capacity available, also as balancing energy.
This coupling process raises the total capacity of the batteries by another good 15% enabling the battery and the hydropower stations to work together to maintain a stable frequency in the power grid.
The €50m system is scheduled to start operations at the end of 2022.
RWE Generation CEO Roger Miesen said: “Battery storage systems are essential to the success of the energy transition. They help balance out fluctuations in the power grid, which are increasing as the share of renewable energies grows.
“Our project is setting new standards and shows how we can offer the market even more flexibility by intelligently linking up battery capacity with run-of-river power stations.”
North Rhine-Westphalia state minister for economic affairs and energy Andreas Pinkwart added: “Large battery storage systems in the megawatt category make a key contribution towards network stability in the new energy world.
“The implementation of this project at a power station with a tradition as long as Werne’s demonstrates impressively how competence and innovative technologies can be used to design the secure energy supply of the future.
“With its energy storage systems in Werne and Lingen, RWE sets new standards and can become a role model for many other projects around the transformation of our energy system.”