Updated: Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) will trial the use of lithium batteries and redox flow energy storage to help integrate renewable energy onto its grid, delivering services both in-front and behind-the-meter.

EMA is the city state’s statutory body for operating power systems, proactively developing the energy industry and regulating energy markets. The body currently has an ongoing SG$25 million (US$18.34 million) programme to develop and test energy storage solutions that could enhance overall stability and resilience in Singapore’s power grids. In late 2016, US organisation Sandia National Laboratories signed an agreement with EMA to cooperate on R&D for various storage applications on the grid.

The intention is to support and enable Singapore’s goal of deploying 1GWp of solar PV generation capacity by 2020. In partnership with utility SP Group (Singapore Power), EMA has awarded contracts to two consortiums to trial a total of 4.4MWh of energy storage system resources. Key to the testing will be the ability of energy storage systems to cope with the hot and humid weather conditions Singapore experiences.

Engineering company CW Group will lead the lithium battery trial, while power engineering company Red Dot Power leads the flow battery programme. Both companies are Singapore-headquartered and together will receive around SGD$17.8 million in grants for the test bed projects.  

A test bed will be established for three years in two sites in north and north-eastern Singapore. The CW Group-led lithium-ion trial will test-bed 2.4MW / 2.4MWh of energy storage for delivering high power applications such as frequency regulation and other ancillary services, also being tested for its ability to provide energy reserves and in reducing peak demand. Nanyang Technological University will be involved with the tests.

CW Group has awarded the design, construction and installation of that lithium project to Nasdaq Helsinki-listed power company Wärtsilä and its recently acquired subsidiary, Greensmith Energy, a system integrator which specialises in software and control systems. The project will use Greensmith’s GEMS energy storage control software platform and will be Wärtsilä / Greensmith’s first project in Asia, although just this month Wärtsilä announced its intent to enter India’s energy storage market, describing the technology as the “only answer” to looming grid congestion problems in the country. 

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Duke Energy is planning to develop and install battery storage materials and PV panels that will serve as part of a microgrid system at the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury in Johnson County, Indiana.

As part of the development of the site, the North Carolina-headquartered utility and holding company will also install battery storage equipment at a substation in Nabb, Indiana.

Before work can begin, plans for the project must be approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. It would be the first microgrid installed at a National Guard facility in Indiana.

Melody Birmingham-Byrd, Duke Energy Indiana state president, said: “Given our recent success with the installation of a 17MW solar power plant at Naval Support Activity Crane, we were eager to find another opportunity to join with the US military to incorporate new technology into our grid operations. The project at Camp Atterbury will help us gain valuable operating experience and may help determine how best to expand the new technology to other areas.”

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Having been subject to discussion for years within the academic sphere, energy storage projects have become a topic of high interest to energy sector focused investors in recent years.

Decreasing cost curves, changing regulatory environments within the energy markets such as deregulation and shifts away from subsidised renewables to market pricing modes, and evolving software capabilities, are increasing investor confidence in energy storage investments and result in increased demand for investment opportunities.

While this seems to be true especially for more mature renewable energy markets like Europe, the United States and several others, investors are facing the problem that energy storage projects as investments are – in most cases – discussed on a very abstract basis. Only considering the “big picture” and seeing the project as a future pillar of the energy market leaves out details such as the complexity coming with energy storage investments in practice.

In my opinion, the propensity to drastically reduce complexity by discussing energy storage as high-level topic has developed based on two major factors:

Firstly, energy storage is still a new topic in the market compared to the long history of energy generation and transmission. Hence, while accumulators and especially batteries seem to be part of consumers’ lives ever since, the discussion about energy storage as a viable part of the electricity market structure is relatively trendy and new. In addition, due to the high diversity of technology types and their evolution, economies of scale and market consolidation (as seen currently in the photovoltaic market) are not yet reached. This leads to different potentials, resulting in an ultimate mess of investment cases. Supported by the fact that storage investments are often declared as a “venture capital topic”.

Second, the high variety of different operational modes results in a high density in varying underlying business models. This depends heavily on local electricity market structures, including installed generation capacities, energy balance, share of renewables and subsidy situation.

In summary, the combining factors of a high density of different technology types and development stages as well as the high variety of different usage types have led to a situation where energy storage is often considered only as party of the big picture, thus not helping investors in getting viable information most relevant to them.

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Indian Discom (distribution company) Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL) and German government-owned entity GIZ have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work jointly on promoting rooftop solar, energy storage systems, EVs and smart grid initiatives.

The two bodies plan to research and conduct studies on these areas and organize capacity building programs jointly for channel partners, project developers, financial institutions, government departments, distribution utilities, and public sector undertakings (PSUs).

Another aim is to promote standardised rooftop PV systems for the broader Indian public by the year 2022. GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), is a development agency focusing on consulting and capacity building activities in areas including rural development, sustainable infrastructure, energy and climate change. 

Praveer Sinha, CEO and managing director, Tata Power–DDL, said: “The collaboration with an institution like GIZ will provide impetus towards adoption of clean, efficient and smart technology in the utility space. We are confident that the collaboration will help us to learn and achieve a greener and sustainable solutions. usage of energy efficient technology is a unique and cost-effective solution to our consumers to optimize operational efficiency and thereby help us to provide them value added services.”

Joerg Gaebler, principal advisor, GIZ said, “We expect the collaboration with Tata Power-DDL will help us in designing and implementing tailored solutions by developing a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by distribution utilities in promoting mature clean technologies like rooftop photovoltaics.”

The governments of India and Germany are already closely aligned in energy maters and the two are collaborating on enhancing the Indian grid’s ability to absorb renewable power.

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Eos Energy Storage has installed and commissioned a 1MWh Eos Aurora battery system at a wastewater treatment plant in Caldwell, New Jersey.

This system will serve as a main component of utility Public Service Electric and Gas Company’s (PSE&G) on-site energy storage microgrid that will help keep the facility operational during extended power outages.

The microgrid system includes an Eos Energy Storage system, along with an 896kW solar PV system designed and installed by Advanced Solar Products. Siemens Energy Management integrated the Eos Aurora system, solar facility, and existing diesel generator — utilising Eos Znyth technology as the base of the microgrid. Znyth use zinc hybrid cathodes, which Eos claims makes its batteries 30% to 40% lower cost than comparable lithium-ion systems.

The company is shipping its systems this year for US$160 per kWh and once it scales up into larger utility-scale systems, Eos says it could give solar-plus-storage projects an LCOE of below 10 cents per kWh. Utility Engie is testing Eos Znyth batteries, stacked into Eos’ ‘Aurora’ branded grid-scale systems, in Brazil, while Eos also has an agreement to collaborate with engineering giant Siemens on developing energy storage systems with AC power conversion and controls.

The Caldwell wastewater treatment plant microgrid stands as part of a 3MW portion of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All program — a plan that looks to develop projects that mesh solar with other technologies to strengthen the electricity grid.

Todd Hranicka, director of solar energy at PSE&G, said: “One of the goals of our Solar 4 All program is to help support the growth and development of solar and related industries in New Jersey. So we were especially happy to include the battery technology from a fellow New Jersey company like Eos into a project that helps make our electric system and a piece of critical infrastructure more reliable and resilient.”

Construction of the storage system was a joint undertaking between Advanced Solar Products, Eos, and Siemens Energy Management.

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Chris Pritchett is a contract lawyer working in Britain for law firm Foot Anstey, as a partner heading up the energy and environment practice. Pritchett recently served as moderator for the “Developers and financiers debate” at the Energy Storage Conference at the Solar & Storage Live 2017 show in England. In attendance were fund managers and project developers and a robust discussion followed. Afterwards, Andy Colthorpe caught up with Chris for an in-depth interview on camera.   

One main topic that comes up often is the relative complexity of modelling returns for energy storage projects, compared to the simplicity enjoyed by solar developers and financiers.

“[With the feed-in tariff (FiT), renewables obligation (RO) and PPAs]… you got used to a quite straightforward and really quite easily modellable return. You knew what it was going to be – it was government-backed for 20-25 years. There has been a journey whereby the investment community has had to detach themselves from that way of thinking.

“Some of the most sophisticated guys haven’t come from that background, they’ve come from tech investment. Actually, they’re far more used to the way this is working. There’s still a willingness to say, ‘what’s the aggregation agreement, or the FFR (fast frequency response) agreement? That’s the financeable proposition’.

“And you say ‘no, actually, here… is an asset – we’ve got grid, all the connections, we’ve got the battery modules and control system. And we’ve got a world of opportunity, where somebody, at some point, will pay you to do lots of stuff with it’.

“People who are well placed to take advantage of that market will be people with assets deployed and ready to go.”   

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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved funds of USD$350,000 for energy storage and grid modernisation in the Caribbean.

The grant was approved to assist utilities and stakeholders with design and planning of storage and grid solutions, in an effort towards clean energy across the region.

Tessa Williams-Robertson, head at Renewable Energy at CBD said, “Through this project, utilities and energy stakeholders will receive the support and technical advisory services needed to identify suitable investments in energy storage and grid modernisation technologies and properly plan for implementation and operational management”.

The Canadian Support to the Energy Sector in the Caribbean (CSES-S) fund will provide technical assistance supporting up to six energy storage and/or grid modernisation proposals, from the Bank’s Borrowing Member countries (BMCs).

The CSES-S Fund provides technical assistance over a four-year period; it was launched in 2016 and has since supported 15 technical assistance projects. The projects include 10 capacity-building projects, four development support projects and one regulatory support project, with the capacity-building projects reaching over 500 people.

The Canadian Government provided CAD$5 million (USD$3.9 million) in grant resources to the CDB to support public and private actors in the energy sector.

The Canadian government invests through the fund in legislative and regulatory Support, investment project support and capacity building, to supply energy projects and increase knowledge and expertise, in order to achieve sustainable energy targets.

In May 2017 CBD approved projects including: the Building Capacity for Disaster Risk Management and Climate Project in Haiti as well as an Energy Efficiency Measures and Solar Photovoltaic Plant undertaking in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

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AES claims that 20MW of energy storage it deployed in the Dominican Republic just a few weeks before Hurricane Irma, assisted the island nation in keeping power supplies running even as devastation struck.

In late August, local subsidiary AES Dominicana commissioned two 10MW energy storage facilities based on AES Energy Storage’s Advancion platform, which incorporates lithium-ion batteries and forms the building blocks of the company’s grid-scale energy storage solutions. Both are able to store energy for 30 minutes duration.

Following the arrival of Hurrican Irma in the first weeks of September, Energy-Storage.News had asked AES how the Advancion arrays had coped during the extreme weather event. The company was not able to respond directly until it had collated some data and today issued a statement on the situation.

AES said the Andres and Los Mina DPP projects, both in the Santo Domingo region, “played a key role in maintaining grid stability” as both Irma and then Hurricane Maria struck. The two arrays are providing frequency control services to the grid, maintaining balance on the network as it adjusts to second-by-second mismatches in supply and demand. They also support the operation of the Republic’s interconnected electricity system, SENI.

Previously, this frequency regulation was provided by thermal plants running 24/7, but now power plants on the island can be run more efficiently, as the batteries absorb power and then discharge it as needed, quickly and cleanly. AES claims the 20MW of energy storage obviates the need for 60MW of thermal generation capacity to deliver the same level of service.

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System deployed at Dutch centre for sustainability and innovation

A new redox flow battery demonstration project was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this week.

The joint UK-Ireland research programme will assess the best electrochemical properties of a redox flow system for the Irish grid, develop a pilot model and identify a path for a >125kW “scalable unit”.

The ImpRESS project was launched at an International Energy Research Centre (IERC) workshop at Queen’s University, Belfast.

“Ireland has fluctuating energy dynamics, and as a consequence of being an island, the scale of the power system is such that it provides an excellent test-bed for the evaluation of energy storage solutions,” said Professor Tony Day, executive director of the IERC.

“The ImpRESS project focuses on all-island electrical energy generation, consumption and storage to meet current requirements, and examines technologies for future electrical networks and grids. It will deliver engineering recommendations capable of influencing future grid-code standards and electrical power system policy development,” said Day.

Ireland is adding more renewables to its grid as it struggles to meet its 2020 renewable energy target of 20%.

“The ImpRESS project provides new commercial opportunities for the businesses involved, including energy trading, providing access to new ancillary services for I-SEM, single energy market pricing and a competitive advantage for faster response services,” said Dr. Matthew Kennedy, head of strategy and business with the IERC.

The project involves collaboration with Chinese vanadium redox flow battery manufacturer Rongke Power, which is in the process of developing and then building a vast 200MW / 800MWh flow battery installation in China’s Dalian peninsula. A 125kW test site with supply from multiple renewable energy sources will be developed at the Belfast site.

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