Enel begins second construction phase of 22 MW storage project in Germany

Enel Green Power has announced that the second tranche of construction work on the Cremzow storage plant in Germany has begun. The project will expand the storage system by a further 20 MW.

The additional power, which will join the 2 MW / 3.2 MWh active since April, will bring the plant to its final operational size, of 22MW / 34.8MWh.

The Cremzow plant, in the Land of Brandenburg, comes out of an agreement between Enel Green Power Germany, the German wind operator ENERTRAG AG and Leclanché, a Swiss company for energy storage solutions. The agreement was signed in February for an overall value of EUR17 million (US$19.5 million).

The construction work for the storage plant, Enel’s first in Germany, will be completed, as planned, by the end of December 2018.

Once completed, the storage plant will provide frequency regulation services with 11 operationally independent units of 2 MW to the German Primary Control Reserve (PCR) market to rapidly stabilise the grid and will be later integrated with ENERTRAG’s wind farms.

The facility will be owned by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which is 90% EGP Germany and 10% ENERTRAG. Leclanché will be a contractor in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and will deal with the integration between batteries and conversion systems and with the energy management software.

The plant will provide the grid with primary frequency regulation services in real time, contributing to its stability. When the frequency of the grid decreases due to higher energy demand, the battery will go to work, quickly providing stored energy, to then recharge in frequency increase phases caused by lower demand.

Furthermore, the integrated use with ENERTRAG wind farms will allow for the use of excess energy produced by the plants to charge the battery, limiting the need of reducing wind energy generation during moments of lower grid demand.