Statkraft launches battery storage system

“The rising percentage of renewable power generation demands flexible solutions. Lithium Ion batteries are, due to their technical properties, perfectly suited for the quick balance of fluctuating generation from wind and solar power. Furthermore, the prices for batteries are regressive, which makes them interesting for demanding control reserve tasks”, says Dr. Pieter Schipper, Senior Vice President Continental Assets and Market Access in Statkraft.

The lithium-ion storage was put into operation at the site of Statkraft’s run-of-river hydropower plant Dörverden only 10 months after signing the EPC contract. The facility was developed in close cooperation with the company ads-tec GmbH and is the first multi-megawatt battery in the grid area of TenneT TSO GmbH. The battery can supply 3 megawatt of primary control power. Statkraft has invested four million euros in the project.

“We are particularly pleased with the cooperative and confiding coordination with transmission system operator TenneT and the project’s execution in partnership with our supplier ads-tec.”, says Schipper. “Due to the good cooperation we received the prequalification for the supply of primary control power in time.”

“We actively participate in the development of new technologies to find and enable new solutions for the changes in the power market. Therefore we are happy to have the first multi-megawatt facility of its kind in our grid area with the battery storage constructed by Statkraft. Its prequalification for the control reserve market is a further step on the road to stronger integration of renewables in the system,” says Urban Keussen, CEO TenneT TSO GmbH.

The lithium-ion battery storage system consists of three transportable and redundantly constructed units over 1 megawatt of installed capacity. The combined units guarantee a high availability of the facility and thus contribute to the stabilisation of the power grid. This is a task that constantly gains more importance in the context of the continually increasing amount of renewable energy.

In the 3 containers located in Dörverden, there are about 14.000 so called “Lithium-Ion-Pouch-Cells” installed, each with a capacity of about 75 Ah or 0,28 kWh. The word “pouch” describes the way these cells, which are about as large as a A4 sheet of paper and just about 2cm wide, are built.

For comparison: the iPhone 6 has got a battery of ca. 1,8 Ah, so that each of the cells of the battery storage possesses the capacity of roughly 150 iPhone 6-batteries. In total (converted to iPhone batteries), Dörverden now has a capacity of a bit more than 2 million iPhone 6-batteries installed.