RWE builds battery storage facility with 600 MW

14.03.2025

Source: E & M powernews

RWE is building three new battery parks in Hamm with a total output of around 600 MW and a capacity of 1.2 million kWh.

The batteries are being built on the site of the decommissioned Westfalen coal-fired power plant in Hamm-Uentrop (North Rhine-Westphalia), the company announced. The systems can generate their maximum output for two hours at a time during operation.

Together with the battery storage facility that went into operation in February, the site will have a storage capacity of 1.35 million kWh in future. "This could be used to charge more than 23,000 average e-cars," says RWE.

The three planned battery fields will cover an area of more than six hectares. RWE will install more than 25,000 lithium iron phosphate batteries in 316 overseas containers. Initial preparatory construction work has already begun. The new battery facilities are scheduled to go into operation between 2026 and 2028. RWE is investing a mid three-digit million euro sum for the construction.

Among other things, the battery storage systems will provide balancing energy. The systems are also designed to provide new grid services. By using modern control technology and fast inverters, the battery storage systems can provide reserve power in the form of instantaneous reserve within milliseconds.

Instantaneous reserve, also known as inertia, was previously mainly provided by the rotating masses of turbines in conventional power plants such as coal-fired power plants. As renewable energies increasingly replace conventional generation plants, the number of rotating generators is decreasing. "Battery storage can compensate for this loss of instantaneous reserve."

According to RWE, it currently operates battery storage systems in the USA, Europe and Australia with a total capacity of around 1,200 MW.

Author: Stefan Sagmeister