From a development point of view, [en Australia]there is a huge need for batteries due to the rapid rise in electricity demand. The reliance on electricity as both a source and a product of renewable energy largely exceeds what the conventional grid structure is built to handle. While the grid upgrades are now coming, batteries offer an excellent tool to help facilitate that transition to meet current demand”, they explain.

Advantages of an EPC company

Gransolar experts emphasize that storage must be driven by favourable regulation and increased investment, which requires minimizing risks and relying on companies already established in the market such as GRS, a leading solar EPC company. “We know the most important players in the industry and feel well positioned to move into battery storage development through E22,” they state.

They both consider the possibility of undertaking projects from the beginning till the end as an advantage from a technical point of view due to the vertical integration of the group’s business units.“Having control of any given project from the very beginning is tremendously useful and provides a significant advantage. (…) It gives investors a sense of certainty that is often lacking elsewhere in the market,” they continue.

Finally, Fernando Plaza and Javier García analyze the different technologies currently being developed in the energy storage sector and discuss the advantages of lithium batteries, the most widely used at the moment, and the benefits of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), about which they say that “clients need to be educated”.

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Under the grid support agreement signed with AusNet, E22 will make the battery’s capacity available during summer peak periods and other emergency events.Outside of the emergency dispatch periods, E22 will be allowed to participate in the electricity and ancillary services markets.

The Longwarry area experiences particularly high energy demand, especially during summer periods. When this storage project goes live it will improve the reliability of power supply in the community, helping to reduce power outages, among other benefits.

“An opportunity in the Australian market”

“We are very proud of what Longwarry means for E22 as a chance to enter the Australian market partnered with AusNet Services in this network service project.”, E22 Managing Director Jaime Vega explains.

For his part,AusNet General Manager Network Strategy and Planning, Rod Jones,said: “This large battery energy storage system is one of the first of many across the AusNet network. In conjunction with Gransolar, the site will provide important network support capabilities for us over the peak summer periods and ensure a more reliable supply of electricity to our customers. It will also pave the way for more new and innovative solutions to the growing demand for energy services.”

The connection of this project comes at a crucial time for the future of renewable energies in Australia, in the midst of a new direction set by the incoming Government, and a strong commitment on achieving net zero targets.

Carlos López, Managing Director Australia at Gransolar Group,highlights the role energy storage will play in the development of renewable energies: “It is a time when large-scale projects are beginning to spread, often hybridized with renewables. These ambitious storage projects enable the transition to green energies by ensuring the energy supply, but also help correct grid imbalances and regulate electricity prices”.

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E22 is the service provider for the first tranche of projects included in the agreement that Grupo Gransolar has just closed with Aquila Capital. What are the keys to this agreement?

E22 has developed a portfolio of projects in Australia, of which Aquila Capital has acquired a part. Aquila’s confidence confirms Gransolar’s positioning in this emerging technology and puts us on the map as a first-rate technology partner. Our background and experience in the energy sector allows us to guarantee our clients the best possible return on their assets and to accompany them in a planned operation tailored to their objectives.

The purchase of storage projects under development is an increasingly widespread operation in the energy market. What are the advantages for an investor?

This type of investment in countries with a consolidated regulatory framework and market, such as Australia, is attractive due to the opportunities it offers in arbitrage and frequency regulation markets, among others, as well as the benefits it brings to the country’s electricity infrastructure.

Could you explain which factors can make this type of investment attractive?

The attractiveness lies in the right location of these generation assets, within a network that requires the services they provide in an increasingly intensive way, and all this combined with cutting-edge technology.

Which qualities make Gransolar the ideal partner for investors?

Gransolar has been involved in the renewables sector since 2005 with extensive expertise in photovoltaics, from project origination, PV Hardware’s manufacturing of solar trackers to the engineering tasks performed by ISE, including the incorporation of its storage division (E22), which started in 2014. Functioning as a vertical integration platform specialized in solar energy positions the group as a reliable partner. All this, added to a team of qualified professionals, a global vision of the sector and our experience, result in the fact of being able to offer the client a quality product, always seeking efficiency and optimization as if it were our own.

In this remarkable growth of renewables and energy storage, which possibilities does a market like Australia offer?

We have the advantage that Grupo Gransolar‘s position as a leader in renewables in this country has served as a strong catalyst to boost the group’s storage division (E22). We became aware years ago of the conditions that made Australia a preferential market, and this anticipation has paved the way for us to grow with the strength of all the companies in the group. We have a well-established position in Australia and the United States, and it is clear to us that we want to go further, consolidating our position in other countries in the short term.

How does E22 plan to meet its ambitious goal of developing 1 GW (2 GWh) in storage by 2022?

The structure of the group in the country, our experience, and our capabilities, allow us to continue the growth trend in a well-planned manner, always looking for projects with great potential, avoiding risks or uncertainties in everything we develop. We are convinced that this first agreement with Aquila Capital to consolidate part of the generation assets planned for this year (220 MW/440 MWh), will undoubtedly give us an important boost to continue working to achieve our goal. On this path, it is important to mention, among other things, our relentless effort to be at the forefront of recently incorporated technologies in the renewable energy park that are here to stay.

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The agreement reached with Aquila Capital includes the selling of three lithium-ion stand-alone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) projects under development in South Australia, which E22 will deliver in a ‘ready-to build’ phase.

E22 has focused on Australia as a strategic market with enormous scope for developing a business model such as the sale of projects under development, with the aim of replicating it in other key countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

As the urgency to undertake a change in the energy model towards sustainability and energy self-sufficiency spreads around the world, storage is becoming imperative to maximize the performance of renewable energies and plays an important role as a regulator of the electricity grid.

Global expansion

Francisco García García, Head of International Business Development at Gransolar, values this agreement in a positive way. “This is an important alliance with a strong partnership, that will contribute to boost the Battery Energy Storage Systems to the vanguard in the market. E22 as part of our global development strategy, with Australia, UK and USA as leading markets, will accompany our clients as a reliable partner”, explains.

Jaime Vega, managing director of E22, highlights the importance of storage in changing the energy model. “There is no doubt that this is a pivotal moment for energy storage business expectations and for E22’s growth. We have the skills to adapt quickly to the specificities of each market and we can identify the most valuable partners to make our projects a reality”, states.

La entrada E22 closes sale of 440 MWh energy storage pipeline to Aquila Capital in Australia aparece primero en E22 Energy Storage Solutions.

Some people wonder how to deal with the intermittency of renewables, but very few question what happens when more is produced than is consumed. This is known as overproduction. The answer is clear: in the current system, energy from renewable sources such as photovoltaic or wind energy is wasted if it is not consumed. This is why curtailmenthas become one of the main concerns of producers, owners and investors of large installations.

What is curtailment

Energy curtailmentis an order by the responsible market operator for both large-scale photovoltaic and wind power plants as well as self-consumption installations to stop producing energy for a specific period of time. It occurs mainly for economic or grid capacity reasons, and in both cases, it is caused by a mismatch between supply and demand, i.e. times when electricity production significantly exceeds consumption.

These outages are closely related to the dreaded ‘duck curve’, a term defined in 2013 by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which already foresaw that the take-off of solar power would lead to a disruption in the system. A graph of daily electricity consumption shows that the highest demand occurs early in the morning and late in the day, inversely proportional to the peak hours of PV production.

Overproduction can have two consequences. One is that production exceeds grid capacity and the market operator is then forced to order large PV plants to shut down. The other is that the increase in supply does not match the increase in demand and prices plummet, leading to production at zero cost.

In both cases, a detrimental situation arises for the plant owner and, depending on what has been agreed, it can also affect the operation and maintenance (O&M) company by worsening the performance rate.

Causes of curtailment

According to the Australian energy market operator AEMO, curtailment is a phenomenon that is expected to increase. It even estimates that it will reach 20% of renewable energy production by 2050, about 50 trillion Wh (equal to 50 billion kWh), the equivalent of what renewables currently produce in Australia.

The main players in the PV sector are calling for increased investment and the creation of appropriate regulations to give storage the prominence it deserves and to avoid the increase predicted by the AEMO. However, in order to prevent its effects, it is necessary to take into account the conditions under which this phenomenon tends to occur.

• These are usually days with favorable weather conditions (very sunny or windy days), when energy production is high.
• Demand is low. In most cases, because it is during holiday periods or weekend days, when forced outages are common.

How to avoid curtailment

As we have already mentioned, the key to avoiding wasting the electricity already produced is to be able to store it for use when it is most appropriate, either at night in the case of photovoltaic or when there is no wind in the case of wind power. But there is also the option of arbitrage to regulate the grid according to supply and demand, which allows energy to be bought at times when production is cheapest and sold when prices rise.

Given the idea, the current energy market must begin to consider the need to incorporate battery systems (BESS) in any new renewable energy project and include them in existing installations to reduce the environmental impact and maximize their performance.

However, as associations of companies in the sector such as the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF) point out, a progressive generalization of storage cannot take place without investment incentive measures, in addition to stimulating grants and aid.

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The company executes the EPC of the 15MW/60MWh and 10MW/40MWh lithium-ion LFP battery systems (BESS) owned and developed by power and renewable investment and development platform Nala Renewables, a joint venture formed by Nyrstar’s parent company Trafigura and IFM Investors. The BESS will be located and connected to the 15 kV grid at Nyrstar’s Balen smelter.

The project, whose main function will be to participate in the electricity grid regulation markets, is currently in the installation phase and is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2022. When connected, Balen will be one of the largest energy storage projects in Europe.

The relevance of storage in Europe

European Union countries are in the process of promoting renewables as the energies of the future and are aware that this transition needs to be completed with a further step: energy storage. Proof of this is the significant support this project has received from local authorities from the beginning. For example, the groundbreaking ceremony for the BESS project held on 10th March was presided over by Flemish government ministers Hilde Crevits and Zuhal Demir.

This project comes at a crucial time for the future of energy in Europe, in the midst of the debate on energy dependence and the importance of investing in storage systems. This is a time when large-scale projects are beginning to proliferate, especially hybridized with renewables. “Storage specialist companies are designing increasingly ambitious projects that will help to correct grid imbalances, regulate electricity prices and, above all, impose the leadership of green energy. In this process, energy storage will play an increasingly important role,” states Jaime Vega, managing director of E22.

“E22 brings their successful track record, knowledge and expertise to Nala Renewables’ BESS project that will help provide greater stability to the Belgium electricity grid by helping to balance supply of renewable energy with energy demand,” said Jasandra Nyker, CEO of Nala Renewables.

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The company has a pipeline of 12.5 MW / 20 MW in the zone, where it landed in 2017 with a storage project in the county of Dorset. And now, it intends to take a quantum leap forward with a permanent site such as the one recently opened in Richmond. “To have presence in the heart of the United Kingdom helps us to manage our projects more directly and to strengthen our relationships with our partners, as well as to meet new ones to keep developing cutting-edge energy solutions,” explains Jaime Vega, Managing Director of E22.

“We had a clear idea of how essential it is to have a place in a market that will play a pivotal role in the coming years in the boosting of energy storage linked to renewable energies,” he adds.

E22’s aim in the United Kingdom is to develop stand-alone battery projects and hybrid storage solutions with different kinds of renewable energies that facilitate the population’s access to a reliable and constant electricity. With this growth in the region, the company will contribute its experience and know-how to the ambitious goals set by the United Kingdom to complete the energy transition, to focus on sustainability and reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

A key market

These policies made it possible to already reach 27 MW of capacity in the area by the end of 2021, a growth of 70% over the previous year. Also significant is the increase in large-scale installations, which have grown from an average of 6 MW in 2017 to 45 MW five years later, according to data from Solar Media Market Research.

Considering these figures, this is a unique opportunity to invest in a market that is experiencing exponential growth and to which E22 is very committed, as evidenced by the opening of the Richmond office.

The Gransolar Group’s energy storage division has already carried out outstanding projects in the area, such as the Holes Bay Balance of Plant (BoP) storage system, developed by Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) and Harmony Energy in the county of Dorset to regulate the frequency and voltage of the grid (SEPD). In this case, E22 has provided the design, installation and commissioning of a Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 7.5 MW and 15 MWh, as well as the subsequent operation and maintenance (O&M) tasks.

The company’s medium-term objective is to expand its pipeline with several lithium battery projects that will provide access to electric grids for remote installations, where energy storage is particularly important for guaranteeing a supply. In order to achieve this, E22 will strengthen its ties with prominent local partners who will contribute to the success of the projects thanks to their great penetration in the market and knowledge of its peculiarities.

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Batteries are the most widely used storage systems. But not all the batteries are the same, nor do they serve the same purpose. When deciding which kind of battery will maximize the performance of an energy installation, several factors must be taken into account. In this decision, the best thing for an investor with little experience in the sector is to hire a company as an EPCist to provide the ‘turnkey’ project and take on the subsequent O&M work.

International Energy Agency (IEA) calculates that in a few years around 10,000 GWh of storage batteries will be needed worldwide to meet the climate and sustainability goals agreed upon at recent international summits. Countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, where legislation and institutional initiative have stimulated the exponential growth of storage, are already standing out.

Considering the various factors, batteries can be classified in different ways.

Manufacturing technology

Energy storage is a sector closely linked to innovation and research. . The constant target is to find new, more efficient materials that are simpler, cheaper, and more sustainable to extract, and that exist in sufficient volume so that their commercialization doesn’t depend on just a few markets, such as China. The aim is also to make them increasingly recyclable materials with less impact on the environment.

E22 is a company specialized in the construction of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), a solution used in projects around the world, which has a number of interesting advantages. For example, they have a service life of more than 10,000 cycles, do not overheat, require little maintenance and are 90% recyclable.

However, lithium-ion batteries are still the most common due to their lower costs and characteristics. These products are presented in containers or cabinets, are easy to transport, install and maintain, and are scalable to adapt to larger or smaller renewable energy projects, such as those planned by E22 in the United Kingdom in the next few months.

Their capacity (different kinds of power)

E22 has a large portfolio of products to be able to respond to the needs of each client and each project in a personalized way. Energy storage batteries can range in power from 15 kW/kWh to hundreds of MW/MWh. The smaller ones, due to their size and characteristics, can be directly integrated into energy or domestic projects, while the larger ones are usually assembled in containers that facilitate the integration and transport, and that are located at a specific point.

The choice of size and power-to-capacity ratio depends on the intended use of the battery. For energy arbitrage, it is ideal to opt for solutions with more capacity than power in order to be able to move the most energy at peak times.

However, if the grid regulation is required, power will be the determining factor as large amounts of energy are not needed.

The technology is essentially the same, irrespective of the battery size. The only difference is the power-to-energy ratio (MW/MWh) which will determine the rating of cells between 2C and 0.5C.

Their purpose: hybridation, arbitrage, etc.

One of the major advantages of batteries is they are hybrid solutions that can be used with any type of energy, but their use is being promoted especially with non-constant energy sources in order to increase their efficiency. The purpose is to store surplus energy during periods of higher production and supply this electricity at times when there is no production.

However, batteries have another interesting function: grid arbitrage. It is a process that consists of storing energy at the highest production peaks, i.e., when market prices are lowest, and releasing it when production decreases at therefore, higher prices. In these cases, a type of product is needed that allows high storage capacity and deep discharges to be effective, and whose useful life is not affected by these cycles.

E22 manufactures its batteries entirely in Spain, specifically at its factory in Chiva (Comunidad Valenciana), thus guaranteeing its clients finished products with European quality standards and little dependence on imported materials.

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Currently, polymers are used in lithium-ion batteries as additives and/or binders, but new batteries require polymeric innovations to address current technological challenges. For example, innovative redox-active polymers are needed for use as active materials in emerging polymer-based battery technologies such as polymer redox flow batteries (pRFBs) and hybrid organic batteries.

The advantages of using polymers include avoiding the use of toxic heavy metals, not needing to link the batteries to a refrigeration system to prevent overheating above a certain temperature, and high charge and discharge rates. Their characteristics make it possible for them to have a much lower environmental impact and contribute more efficiently to the decarbonisation of the planet.

Research in the company

As a specialised company in energy storage solutions with a focus on constant innovation, E22 is participating in POLYSTORAGE, a polymer battery research and development (R&D) project involving a European consortium with funding from the European Union and a small participation of Australian funds. The aim of this project is to train 16 researchers, PhD students, with individual projects in the areas of polymer science and electrochemical energy storage.

“Evolution of the energy system requires innovative energy storage. In this project, the focus is not only on technology development, but also on young scientists with great development potential,” explains Veselin Miroslavov Veselinov, product manager at E22.

The 16 selected people form an international, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary research team consisting of 12 beneficiaries (8 European universities, 2 European research institutes, 2 European companies) and 11 project partners (2 academic institutions and 9 European companies).

“This kind of project gives us the opportunity to attract young talent to the R&D department, while at the same time allowing us to create platforms for knowledge exchange between the research sector and industry, establishing synergies between them,” says José Angel Horcajada, R&D material manager.

In the case of E22, it is an industrial partner involved in the design of a semi-industrial prototype polymeric redox flow battery using the polymers synthesised by other institutions during the project. To this aim, the company has recruited Athul Seshadri Ramanujam as a PhD student to work on the design. His work has started with a feasibility study of different polymer technologies and the comparison of these novel chemistries with mature technologies in the market. The findings of this techno-economic study will be the basis for the selection of the appropriate chemistry on which the design of the semi-industrial prototype will be built.

Athul Seshadri welcomes this opportunity to participate in a project to boost the energy transition. “As we are steadily transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables, parallel development of sustainable energy storage systems is necessary,” he says.

“Polymer-based redox flow batteries provide a pathway to progress towards cheaper and environmentally benign energy storage. Working at the R&D setting of E22 gives me an opportunity to design a battery from an industrial standpoint with an eye for the energy storage market,” he concludes.

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Ensuring the success of these O&M operations means discovering the formula to apply the knowledge accumulated from years of experience in electrochemical, thermal and hydraulic processes (Flow Batteries), in order to perform the correct or incorrect operation of the plant. But there are other factors that link the control, operation and maintenance process with achieving optimum performance results.

One of the key factors is to have a plant data acquisition system designed with the philosophy of leveraging technology to allow access to and monitoring of information from anywhere in the world. Currently, it is enough to have an internet connection and an internal telecommunications infrastructure in the storage plant to receive and send data without the need for personnel to perform this task in person. Automatization also allows the information to be stored in databases for further studies.

In a battery system, there are several monitoring levels to collect the necessary information to optimize its performance. Among them, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) stands outwhich is responsible for collecting information from the entire microgrid, including that provided by subsystems such as the EMS (Energy Management System), BMS (Battery Management System), PCS (Power Control System), and LEMS (Local Energy Management System). This system provides the end user with all the information in a single Human Machine Interface (HMI), which can be designed according to the customer’s needs and requirements.

At Energy Storage Solutions (E22), we have a highly specialized technical team with many years of accumulated experience in the sector, trained to design, implement, commission and provide assistance in the operation and maintenance stage of any of these subsystems. Thus, it is a privilege to have a human capital capable of attending to any incident across all of these monitoring and control systems, developed internally at our facilities and with batteries that we manufacture.

Another essential factor for the optimum control and maintenance of electrochemical storage facilities is to provide the plant with asystem for processing and interpreting data, issuing reports and managing alarms, both for the technical teams in charge and for customers. At this point, the key is to define precisely what data are needed depending on the reports to be obtained, since the latter will define the cascade of instrumentation systems to be implemented, from the central SCADA to the process level. There is no point in collecting numerous variables if they cannot be interpreted later, or vice versa.

Although technology allows the automation of most operation and maintenance processes, it is essential to have local personnel or specialized subcontractors with the capacityto perform work in the facility itselfin the shortest possible time in order to minimize downtime of the asset. These teams undertake predictive maintenance tasks (repairs which are carried out before the asset fails based on the data provided by the monitoring system), preventive maintenance (action is taken on an element periodically to avoid a failure), and corrective maintenance (action is taken on an element once a failure has occurred).

All these processes at the plant level must be carried out according to previously established procedures depending on the particularities of each installation and always executed by personnel with the appropriate training.

Another influencing factor in an optimal O&M process is the establishment of an equipment guarantee management system that allows easy access to information about the equipment to facilitate corrective interventions in the installation and to control the age of the components. Also important, is having warehouses for spare parts and toolsin the park itself or in a nearby location to optimize times in the event of breakdowns.

Taking out the necessaryinsurance policies to cover possible risks is another pillar in the maintenance of an energy storage facility. In this case, a distinction must be made between insurance policies held by the owner of the facility, such as liability insurance for any accident that might be caused to a third party by the mere existence of the facility or property damage (fire, theft, natural catastrophes and even loss of production in the event of prolonged breakdown), and insurance that must be taken out by the company responsible for O&M, such as liability insurance for damage caused by the work carried out by the operation.

In parallel with the progress achieved in all these processes, E22 works every day to find new methods to make the O&M service more efficient, such as 24-hour assistance using tools based on artificial intelligence (AI).

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