Belgium's first grid-connected local battery, pioneering with a vision.
Th!nk E, ABB, Imtech and Enervalis recently built the first grid-connected local battery in Oud-Heverlee. This battery enables nine households in the neighbourhood to do peak shaving.
Surpluses of solar energy (from solar panels in these households and up to 90 kilowatt hours) can be stored in the battery to be used during consumption peaks.
The battery not only increases the efficiency of the solar panels. It is also connected to the 50-year-old local distribution net, which can not longer cope with the growing electrification (heat pumps, solar panels, charging stations for electric cars, etc.). It is therefore also a solution to the ever-increasing grid load.
Batteries are already used more often (in industry, hospitals,...) but behind the meter. What is unique about this project is that the battery is used on a local district scale and its connection to the distribution network.
The local battery for the Ophemstraat in Oud-Heverlee was developed and produced in Belgium at ABB PG in Jumet, a joint venture with Hitachi. "We are quite proud that we were able to realize this piece of modern and green technology in Belgium and hope that we have laid the foundation for a better, much broader story in which district batteries for local residents will play a sustainable and economical role," says Jo Pauwels, managing director of ABB Benelux.
"The technology is not new," says Leen Peeters, who launched the project at the engineering firm Th!nk E and went through all its phases until the effective start-up of the local battery in February.
"The implementation in a local district is. There was no legal framework and it was a long process of negotiations with the authorities and district network operator Fluvius to get all the paperwork in order. No business case is ready yet, but the framework for it has been created. Fluvius added an addendum that can serve as a standard contract in the future for those who want to install a local district battery. Because the tariffs have not yet been adjusted, it is not very profitable at the moment, but within five years a breakthrough is certainly realistic".
This Story-demo project is part of the European Horizon2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The initiator and technical coordinator was Th!nk E. ABB was responsible for the technology, Imtech was the system integrator and Enervalis supervised the programme.
(Source: Engineeringnet.be)