a building that has a lot of windows on it.

Designing a Local DC Electrical Network with Integrated Storage Capacity

In this Grid Edge Consulting project, Spectral joins the municipality of Rotterdam in the design and delivery of a new smart grid for the Ahoy area as part of the EU Horizon 2020 Smart Cities consortium RUGGEDISED project. The initiative will increase energy efficiency, and relieve grid congestion in this area. The city as project coordinator of the complete consortium selected Spectral to unlock the possibility of integrated battery storage and local DC network behind the meter.

Date:

December 2019 – November 2020

Client(s):

Partner(s):

1

Challenge

There is a large solar installation on the roof of the Ahoy building, enabling significant self-consumption and additional delivery of energy generation to the local network. To further the delivery of a renewable and reliable local network a 60-meter tall urban wind turbine will be placed on site. Several event locations are stationed in the Ahoy area – key operations at these sites result in high peak power demand. By storing the excess energy at high supply times and redispatching those at high peak demands, the local grid can be unburdened. This would be favourable for the local grid and simultaneously lowers peak powers and required backup capacity in the form of fossil fuel generators.

2

Approach

This is a Grid Edge Consulting project. Using historical data Spectral ran a numerical analysis to determine consumption and production profiles of the primary assets in the area. Then the business models for the financial viability of utilizing energy storage for balancing and congestion management services were determined to be favorable. Subsequently, the ideal system configuration from a techno-economic and environmental perspective for balancing current and future energy demand behind the grid was determined. Finally, organizational boundary conditions were established concerning the integration of the energy management system.

3

Outcome

A battery will be insufficient for meeting peak demands from events, though emergency power generators can be replaced by a battery. Installment of a 3 MWh battery could provide emergency power, reduce peaks and could trade on the FCR and imbalance market. Proper management of this 3 MWh battery will offset capital investments in just 5 years. 

Questions? Contact us!

Geert Litjens

Energy Consultant

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