Centrica Business Solutions and LRM are the first to supply Elia's secondary reserve
Centrica Business Solutions and LRM are the first to supply Elia's secondary reserve thanks to battery installation in Terhills.
On Friday 30 October 2020, Centrica Business Solutions and LRM took a second important step to support the electricity grid with batteries. In the current energy system with intermittent electricity production and fluctuating demand for electricity, imbalances arise, thanks to the battery installation of Terhills NV, a subsidiary of the Limburg investment company LRM, Centrica can support the grid cheaper than power plants without emitting CO2.
This is because the battery absorbs electricity when there is an excess and injects it back into the grid when there are shortages. In concrete terms, Centrica, together with Elia, the operator of the high-voltage grid, has completed the first phase of the procedure for the pre-qualification of the secondary reserve for the battery it manages on behalf of Terhills SA.
By May 2018, LRM and Centrica Business Solutions had already reached a first milestone by being the first company to upgrade an 18 MW Tesla battery into a 32 MW "virtual power plant" within the Primary Reserve on the Terhills site. This Primary Reserve makes it possible to maintain an uninterrupted grid frequency, which is necessary for the stability of the grid. The battery acts as a buffer and allows electricity to be injected or absorbed from the grid. Centrica reaffirms its position as a pioneer in the flexibility market by being the first aggregator of flexibility to use a battery in the secondary reserve market recently opened by Elia.
The Secondary Reserve takes over from the Primary Reserve when it is depleted by prolonged peaks in electricity consumption or production. This means that the battery not only supports the frequency of the grid, but also rebalances the grid in the event of a prolonged imbalance between electricity generation and demand. The big challenge is that the Secondary Reserve requires a lot of energy content. Centrica solves this innovatively by combining the battery with industrial flexibility that it takes over from the battery when it is in danger of running out.
