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BECC - Enabling the Energy Hub of Tomorrow

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Controlling a Complex Environment

Bio Energie Centrale Cuijk (BECC) is a producer of green electricity and sustainable heat in the Netherlands. The company was struggling with optimizing new facilities and financial burdens, and that’s where Spectral came in. With our proven track record of handling complex projects as a software solution provider, we embarked on this project with our partner GreenChoice. The combination of the boiler and battery together with the existing Combined Heat and Power (CHP) makes this project compelling – this project is the first of its kind in the Netherlands and one of the most complex ones we have undertaken so far. This is a STELLAR project.

Date:

June 2022 - Present

Client(s):

Partner(s):

1

Challenge

Spectral has been entrusted with the steering and optimization of BECC’s equipment, which will further support the company’s goal of providing renewable energy to the Northeast of Brabant. The e-boiler is a captivating element of the project because it reduces the gas consumption of the facility while providing flexible steam directly to customers in the direct vicinity of the plant. Additionally, it also provides balancing services and aFRR (auxiliary frequency restoration reserve) services. For BECC, one of the main pain points has been with forecasting their production and dealing with the associated imbalance costs. This becomes even more complex with the addition of the battery and e-boiler.

Energy producer BECC turned to Spectral for control, balancing and ancillary services. We embarked on this project together with our partner, GreenChoice, who is the energy supplier, balance responsible party (BRP) as well as the Balancing Service Provider  (BSP). It is our responsibility to integrate the existing Combined Heat and Power (CHP), as well as the management of the e-boiler and the battery.

2

Approach

This is a STELLAR project. We created  simulation models of each of the assets. This enabled us to determine the dynamic behavior of the whole energy hub. We use those results to develop the control algorithms necessary to manage each asset individually as well as together behind a single grid connection with limited capacity. One of Spectral’s main objectives was to optimize the plants through local control (capacity management, optimization of import tariffs). We also enable balancing and ancillary services and serve as the IT backbone, transmitting data to third parties who can in turn make better decisions concerning these assets.

3

Outcome

After a successful collaboration between multiple parties, BECC has a collection of new, sustainable, and manageable assets. These have further enabled BECC’s vision of creating a green energy HUB in the Northeast Brabant. In addition to the successful integration of the above assets, BECC has turned their initial problem of unmanageable imbalance costs into a solution through Spectral’s Smart Energy Solutions.

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