NSI: Lowering Consumption Peaks by Using a Battery

A new office building of over 50.000 square meters is being built close to the Bijlmer Arena in Amsterdam. This structure is sustainable thanks to a number of additions, such as solar cells, electric heating, and places for charging electric vehicles. 

When systems like heat pumps and solar cells are integrated into a building, its energy profile – a certified document attesting to its energetic sustainability – dramatically changes. One of the main challenges was to find the daily power demand of NSI Laanderpoort, and to compare it to similar buildings in the NSI portfolio. An additional challenge was of an external nature: in 2021, grid connection fees considerably increased. This made staying within a lower grid connection category an urgent problem. By lowering peaks, by using a battery, an energy consumer can limit its demand on the electricity grid. Lower demand means a smaller grid connection suffices.

In this Grid Edge Consulting project, we researched and simulated various scenarios in which the building made use of energy storage. We also determined the projected investment and revenue of these changes. First, based on the building’s operation times, installations, and devices, the Power Profile for the electric load was established. The Charger Profile was determined using a looser methodology based on the assumptions that we derived from prior cases, while the Heating Profile was based on the outside temperatures. Lastly, we worked out the revenue streams for a lower grid connection combined with a battery in a building. These were then compared to the revenue streams of the building if it were to have a “normal grid” connection.

Using the method described above, we were able to identify that our first guesstimates with regard to the consumption per square meter were conservative, but within the expected bandwidth of the rest of the NSI portfolio. We found out that staying within a small grid connections category (and the manifestations of that decision) while investing in a 1 MW/2 MWh battery was cheaper than increasing the grid connection. Revenues in that scenario include: lowering grid OPEX, lowering costs related to peaks, adding a revenue stream as a result of trading on the imbalance market, and lowering renting costs on the inverter. All of this combined makes up for that extra investment in the battery and provides a pay-back period of 6-8 years.