Energy storage offers the end user more functionality and flexibility

Battery storage systems enable numerous applications, where functionality can also be stacked. Evert Raaijen van Alfen will be present during the Energy Storage Event on February 12 in a lecture provide insight into developments such as self-healing microgrids and benefit stacking.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

With his company Exendis, Raaijen started working on the development of the first energy storage systems. Raaijen says: “Exendis was taken over by Alfen in 2011. There I was working on energy storage as a business developer with the vision that energy storage would grow very strongly. At that time I was still one crying in the wilderness. However, Alfen also had the vision that something would happen with this technology and we continued the development at Alfen.”

The market for energy storage systems has grown enormously in the last 2 to 3 years, says Raaijen: “Originally, the technology was intended for island grids, including in Africa and in the solar belt. In recent years, applications have also been added for stabilizing large energy networks, including in Europe but also in other areas.”

Multiple applications

He continues: “Frequency response is most commonly used. In the past, power plants were regulated up and down. But power stations that do not supply power do not receive any money. Nowadays they do receive money to keep reserve capital on hand. That is extremely interesting for battery storage. Because battery storage is significantly cheaper than building new power stations. Moreover, you can use the power in both directions.”

But there are many more applications for battery storage, often housed in 10, 20 or 40ft containers: “We also see growth in off grid systems and microgrids. With TheBattery Mobile (a mobile energy storage product from Alfen, ed.) we offer a solution to replace diesel generators in places where you do not want diesel generators, such as at events or on construction sites in heavily populated areas. Diesel consumers are also being banned in more and more cities. And we supply complete microgrids in Africa to supply factories with sustainable energy. With solar energy and battery storage we can create local energy networks.”

“Peak shaving is also interesting if your grid connection is too small and you are faced with increasing power consumption with high peak powers, for example for fast chargers of electric cars. With peak shaving you can ensure that the current grid infrastructure can handle the demand. And you can also think of neighborhood batteries and the storage of solar and wind energy.”

Thanks to the many application possibilities, Alfen sees the demand for battery storage systems growing strongly and worldwide. Raaijen: “We are mainly growing in Europe and that is where the focus is. But we are also active intercontinentally, where customers ask us to accompany them. We are working on projects in the US, China, Korea and Nigeria, among others. The Netherlands is an important part of the market, but the market as a whole is a lot bigger.”

Self-healing mini-networks

Moreover, the sector continues to innovate. A new and promising area of application is so-called self-healing microgrids. Raaijen explains: “Self healing microgrids are microgrids that are normally grid-connected and where battery storage is primarily used for standard business cases, such as reserve power and peak shaving. The interesting thing is that if you already have all that battery storage, you can also use it in the event of a power failure. The battery storage is then the heart of the temporary local energy supply, with which you create a temporary and independently regulating microgrid. This functionality is already intrinsically included in our storage systems.”

According to Raaijen, such systems could have partially compensated for recent disruptions in the Dutch grid, such as the major power outages in Amsterdam and also the incidents in which Apache combat helicopters flew into high-voltage cables during training flights: in one area the power went out, so that Liander had to work hard on repairing the damaged high-voltage cables. If storage systems with our self-healing microgrid functions had been installed there, the power outage might have been smaller and less long-lasting.

Looking at the latest technology, Raaijen sees that certain battery storage projects are becoming larger. Furthermore, electric car chargers are combined with storage systems and sustainable energy generation and thanks to so-called benefit stacking one or more containers can combine various functionalities and revenue models for a customer. Raaijen: “You also see charging emerging together with sustainable energy and energy storage. You can better arrange the charging of cars so that we can avoid expensive investments in grid reinforcements in combination with making the electricity grid stable. And if you look even more broadly, you see mutual cooperation between devices. We believe that we are not only at the heart of the energy transition, but also help make it possible. And that is of course very nice.”

Would you like to attend this lecture during the Energy Storage Event? You can register for free.