Lithium-titanate battery to support UK’s first 2-MW ESS
The research project, which is led by the University of Sheffield, aims to test the technological and economic challenges of using large scale batteries to provide support to the grid.
Large-scale ESS are increasingly seen as a versatile solution in managing electricity supply. Installed in wind and photovoltaic generation systems, ESS can help to overcome intermittent output and frequency fluctuations, as well as performing peak power buffering, and when connected to the grid they can support grid stability and reinforcement. The role in grid management will be investigated in the UK, in the Grid Connected Energy Storage Research Demonstrator project, led by the University of Sheffield, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with support from both industrial and academic partners. The Demonstrator will also test the viability of used electric vehicle battery packs for domestic or industrial electricity storage.
The ESS will be connected to the 11 kV grid at Western Power Distribution’s Willenhall primary substation, near Wolverhampton in the UK’s West Midlands. When the project starts operation in November 2014, it will allow testing at realistic levels, and allow assessment of both the technical and economic potential of ESS in the grid.
Professor Dave Stone from the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering, said: “Large scale batteries could reduce the need to keep energy generators on standby to respond to peaks in demand, but it’s as yet unclear how this might be best managed commercially. Because this is a dedicated research facility, we’ll be able to explore the advantages of grid connected energy storage in a real operating environment, but without commercial constraints. We’ll be able to openly assess the impacts of the technology on our energy infrastructure, which should ensure faster adoption by the sector, to help improve how the grid functions and its overall stability.”
Toshiba’s SCiB is a lithium-titanate based secondary battery, distinguished by its long-life and excellent performance: fast charging and discharging in a wide range of temperature conditions; capability to withstand over 10,000 charge-discharge cycles; and high level reliability and operational safety, particularly in terms of low risk of fire, a danger associated with other lithium-ion batteries. ESS based on Toshiba’s SCiB provide a solution where high performance and long life are required, for example in the provision of efficient and effective frequency regulation.
Toshiba is promoting battery-based ESS globally as a support for stable power networks, supplying several projects in Japan and around the world, and has already received orders for commercial systems in Italy and Japan, where it has supplied batteries for a 40 MW ESS which is one of the world’s largest.
The research involves both industrial and academic partners: the Universities of Sheffield, Aston and Southampton, Toshiba, distribution network operators Western Power Distribution, power and automation technology company ABB, specialist equipment housing supplier Portastor, electrical engineering specialists Sterling Power Utilities, electronic engineering consultants Converter Technology, and civil engineers Alpha Construction.
Feasibility studies for the research project were funded by both the TSB and DECC and additional partner organisations in all projects include G&P Batteries, Energy Cost Advisors Ltd, Renault and Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC).
Related articles and links:
www.toshiba.co.jp/worldwide/index.html
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