Early this week, S&C Electric Company officially opened its 6MW/10MWh Smarter Network Storage (SNS) project.
S&C Electric Europe, Samsung SDI and Younicos collaborated on the project, which has been installed at a United Kingdom Power Networks substation.
“Energy storage can play a major role in balancing the grid as it solves the problem of renewable intermittency by absorbing surplus power and releasing it when needed. This function simultaneously helps to securely balance capacity and supply, and protects the grid from stress events (e.g. power outages),” says Andrew Jones, managing director, S&C Electric Europe.
“The introduction of energy storage in substations like the one at Leighton Buzzard can decrease the need and cost of traditional reinforcement, such as transformers and cabling.”
The two year trial will enable testing of a range of different services that storage can provide, plus allow UK Power Networks to explore and improve the economics of electrical energy storage.
“This project will have an impact not only for the local area, but also nationally and internationally,” said Ben Wilson, UK Power Networks’ director of strategy and regulation and chief financial officer. “What we learn here from this exciting and important development will be vital for similar schemes in the future.”
S&C has been working in the energy storage sector for more than a decade. It has integrated more than 150 MWh capacity, which S&C says represents 20 percent of worldwide grid-connected battery storage capacity. Its Purewave Storage Management System currently connects more than 90% of the grid-scale sodium-sulphur batteries installed in the United States.
The company has also been active in Australia.
In September, the S&C was awarded a contract by Ergon Energy to provide 20 S&C PureWave Community Energy Storage Systems for the utility’s Grid Utility Support Systems (GUSS).
The systems will charge lithium-ion batteries at night and then discharge them during the day to support peak load demands. Each 25-kVA unit will provide 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Ergon Energy estimates these systems will reduce network augmentation costs by more than 35 percent. Deployment of the first GUSS units is expected to be complete by early next year.
S&C Australia also previously provided a 1MW/.5WMh energy storage system to Hampton Wind Park, which is situated near Hampton, south-east of Lithgow, New South Wales.
