26.06.2024
Source: Energie & Management Powernews
The utility N-Ergie and the photovoltaic system manufacturer Münch Elektrotechnik are working on a battery-based storage system. The results from Beuna are promising. Since the beginning of 2024, Münch Elektrotechnik GmbH & Co. KG (also known as Münch Energie) and N-Ergie AG have been cooperating on an innovation project for the optimized marketing of photovoltaic electricity: The battery storage system in Beuna, a district of the town of Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt, "has been providing valuable insights into the automated operation of such systems for several months". The process is now working well. According to N-Ergie, the aim is now to "stabilize and fully automate the processes that are already working", the Nuremberg-based utility announced on 25 June.
The battery has an output of 11.7 MW and a storage capacity of 34,000 kWh. It stores the electricity from the affiliated PV system from Münch Energie with an output of 34 MW at times of day when prices on the short-term market are particularly low - usually around midday when there is plenty of sunshine - and feeds it back into the grid during "expensive hours". The storage system uses exclusively green electricity generated on site and is state-funded as an innovation project.
Control software is continuously being improved
According to N-Ergie, the basis for the optimal use of the battery is the continuous exchange of data between the PV system and the storage system. The control software specially programmed for this system - taking into account technical parameters such as generation capacity or the maximum number of charging processes per day - is to be further improved by N-Ergie employees.
"With this project, we are gaining valuable experience in how battery storage systems can make the feed-in of PV electricity more flexible - which not only offers opportunities in terms of marketing, but also with regard to the grid infrastructure," explains Maik Render, CEO of N-Ergie. "The project in Beuna alone stores enough energy to supply more than 30,000 people with renewable, affordable energy through the night," adds Mario Münch, Managing Director of Münch Energie.
The project was awarded the contract in the Federal Network Agency's innovation tender in May 2022 (we reported). According to Section 39 of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2021), the aim is to "promote technical solutions that are particularly useful for the grid or system and prove to be efficient in a technology-neutral competitive process".
Author: Heidi Roider
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