Germany: 67MWh battery storage system with SMA inverters close to completion

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A 60MW/67MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Germany being developed by Smart Power with technology provided by SMA is due to be completed imminently.

The Wartburg BESS project in Eisenach, Thuringia, is due to be completed in the current quarter (Q3), developer Smart Power said on Monday (26 September). Once complete, it will provide Primary Control Reserve (PCR) services and VNE (avoided network charges) services as well as intraday trading.

Thorsten Klöpper, managing director of Smart Power, said: “The Wartburg storage facility is an essential part of a reliable and climate-friendly energy supply. The aim of the Wartburg storage facility is to stabilise the frequency in the power grid, an essential part of a reliable, climate-friendly energy supply.”

It is utilising SMA Medium Voltage Power Stations with Sunny Central Storage battery inverters. A media statement said the system was built in concrete and additional space was created on the roof for the inverters, which weigh 250 tonnes. The concrete construction is more time-consuming and expensive but offers advantages in terms of the lifespan of the project, it added. It will have an output of up to 3960 kVA at system voltages of up to 1500 VDC.

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The utility-scale energy storage market in Germany has been slow in recent years but looks set to pick up in the next few, as Energy-Storage.news recently wrote in a special report for Vol.32 of PV Tech Power, Solar Media’s quarterly technical journal for the downstream solar industry.

Smart Power’s project is similar in size to one being brought online in November by RWE, a 72MW system in Werne, while 100MW/200MWh systems are being planned in Germany by developers including Siemens, in partnership with Fluence, and local player ECO STOR, although grid access studies have not been carried out as of yet for either.

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