Avacon and Rolls-Royce Are Testing the Contribution of Battery Storage and PV Systems to Grid Stability

German energy supplier Avacon and Rolls-Royce together are driving forward the integration of battery storage into the power grid as part of a research project. Based on a field test, the aim is to show how energy communities, PV systems and mtu battery storage can be intelligently linked to contribute to an efficient energy supply and to stabilize the energy system. Avacon and Rolls-Royce are already collaborating on a second research project. The aim is to use battery storage to moderate generation peaks from PV systems and bring them into line with electricity consumption.

Lower Saxony's Minister for Economic Affairs, Olaf Lies (SPD), symbolically commissioned the mtu battery storage system in northern Germany, together with Avacon's Chief Technology Officer Rainer Schmittdiel and Lukas Köhler, Managing Director Sales and Service Germany at Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Lukas Köhler of Rolls-Royce Power Systems said:
We are delighted to be working with Avacon again. The intelligent linking of our mtu battery storage system with PV systems and home storage systems, which is to be tested in the project, makes an important contribution to both the energy transition and grid stabilization. Battery solutions are among our strategic business areas and ensure energy security worldwide.”

Intelligent linking of storage systems and renewable energies relieves power grid
The project is based on the concept of an energy community: local households store electricity they generate themselves from PV systems in home storage units, and surplus energy is also fed into the central mtu large-scale battery storage system. The interaction between home and large-scale battery storage is controlled by means of intelligent algorithms. On the one hand, this should help to balance out the volatility of power generation from PV systems. On the other hand, the project aims to increase the local self-consumption rate to up to 100 percent at times. This relieves the power grid and increases the overall stability of the system.