Swiss energy services outfit Alpiq will operate a battery for the electric utility supplying the town of Maienfeld in the Swiss canton of Grisons.
The 1.2MW system, owned by Elektrizitatswerk Maienfeld, will reduce costly peak loads in the supply area of the utility and will also earn revenues from providing grid ancillary services.
From April Alpiq will operate and manage the battery, which uses lithium iron phosphate technology and has a capacity of 1.5 megawatt hours, having secured the work through a tender process.
As well as peak shaving, Alpiq will integrate the storage asset into its ancillary services pool to participate in the balancing energy market for secondary control power, a first for an energy storage system in Switzerland.
The next step will be to take part in the primary control power market, the company said.
This stacked revenue model will generate income for both the utility and Alpiq.
Alpiq’s artificial intelligence platform will optimise the battery through processing a range of information and data, including weather forecasts, market and price information, historical load profiles, actions and events.
It will also ensure the battery is deployed profitably, either through reducing peak loads or providing specific ancillary grid services.