Swedish energy company Vattenfall has initiated the operations of its co-located battery, designed to store renewable wind power generated by its onshore wind farm Pen y Cymoedd (PyC) in the UK.
Vattenfall anticipates that its 22MW battery@pyc project will help the UK National Grid maintain frequency levels and reliability of electricity supply by storing electricity produced by the wind farm.
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Vattenfall’s PyC wind farm comprises 76 wind turbines and has the capacity to generate enough power to meet the electricity needs of more than 13% of households in Wales every year.
In addition to meeting electricity needs in the region, the project supports Wales’s climate change ambitions by displacing more than 300,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from fossil fuelled generation.
Vattenfall Wind Business Area senior vice-president Gunnar Groebler said: “Vattenfall is on the road to a smart, digitalised future, free from fossil fuels. I can think of few other energy installations that better demonstrate what that future looks like than this battery installation.”
The 22MW battery is made up of six shipping container sized units, five of which are equipped with the 500 i3 BMW manufactured battery packs.
The battery makes use of lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 33KWh supplied by BMW and adapted for a stationary application.
Vattenfall Solar & Batteries Business Unit head Claus Wattendrup said: “This is Vattenfall’s largest battery installation to date, where we make use of synergies at our existing wind farms sites – such as at Pen y Cymoedd or the Princess Alexia Wind Farm in the Netherlands. Hybrid renewable parks will play a larger role in the future and we are leading this development.”
Vattenfall operates in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.
