Bayreuth/Oldenburg, 10 November 2021. Transmission system operator TenneT and EWE subsidiary be.storaged GmbH, which specializes in services relating to the construction and operation of battery storage systems, are collaborating on a pilot project that will test support for congestion management in the transmission network through the intelligent interaction of decentralised battery storage systems.
To do this, be.storaged will bundle the flexibility potential of different battery storage systems via an agent-based energy management system and transfer it to the aggregated flexibility potential in the event of bottlenecks in the power grid. This will not only increase the economic value of the battery storage systems participating in the pilot project, but also allow them to contribute to a successful energy transition.
Agent-based energy management system increases the flexibility potential of battery storage systems for congestion management
Until now, battery storage systems have primarily been used in a so-called ‘single-use operation’, e.g., to increase the consumption of photovoltaic electricity among household customers or to limit load peaks for commercial customers. However, the existing flexibility potential for the various uses in the electricity and system service markets remains mostly unused. As such, be.storaged has developed an agent-based decentralised energy management system with the Oldenburg OFFIS Institute for Computer Science, which enables a ‘multi-purpose operation’ of battery storage.
In the pilot project with TenneT, local agents connect the individual battery storage systems to form a swarm and the pooled flexibility potential that is still available is transported from be.storaged to TenneT via the Equigy Crowd Balancing Platform. Depending on the respective load flow situation, this enables TenneT to test how the flexibility potential of battery storage systems can support congestion management. The pilot project will see an agent-based and a blockchain-based platform linked for the first time in order to give small-scale flexibility potentials efficient access to the system service markets.
Background
The expansion of renewable energies is increasingly leading to decentralised structures in the lower-level German energy distribution system. This will massively increase the number of small producers, storage facilities and consumers in the coming years. At the same time, the high feed-in of fluctuating renewable energies is leading to transport bottlenecks in the transmission network. In the future, there will be less and less conventional generation capacity from large power plants available to manage these network bottlenecks and to compensate for fluctuations in electricity generation and consumption. Once intelligently networked and integrated into the system service markets, the flexibility potential of millions of decentralised producers, storage facilities and consumers can make a major contribution to the control of power grids.
Use of blockchain-based technologies
The provision of system services for the control reserve market and congestion management from millions of individual systems requires a new approach to automated control and integration into the processes of TSOs, as well as technical solutions from device manufacturers and energy service providers. As such, TenneT has developed a cross-border blockchain-based data platform – the Equigy Crowd Balancing Platform – together with a number of European TSOs. This platform will make it easier for millions of households in Germany and Europe to actively offer the flexibility of their systems via electricity providers and manufacturers on the system service markets, and so help stabilise the electricity grid. Equigy enables the automated integration and control of these systems into the processes of network operators and market parties.
Press contact
- TenneT: Mathias Fischer Email: mathias.fischer(at)tennet.eu Phone: +49 (0)921 507 404 044
- EWE: Katharina Schütz Email: Katharina.Schuetz(at)ewe.de Phone: +49 (0)441 480 518 17
