Application of a Li-Ion battery in the

frequency containment reserve market

QualyGridS Symposium, July 6th 2017

Dr. Marina González Vayá, Smart Grid Specialist, EKZ Technology Management
EKZ 1 MW BESS Project

§ Joint project with ABB

§ Goal: Gain experience with this technology

by testing different applications

§ Timeline
§ Start Engineering Mid 2011
§ 21. March 2012 Commissioning
§ June 2014 prequalification for primary frequency
control
§ First non-hydro unit in CH
§ Fist standalone battery in Europe without additional
backup from generator

2 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

The Zurich 1 MW BESS

Battery Container
Transformer

Coupling
Transformer
Inverter 1 MVA

3 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

System Components
Battery modules Battery container

Inverter

SCADA

4 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Key properties
Property Value Notes
Power 1 MW charging and discharging
- installed power 1.1 MW
- Peak power 15 min >1.3 MW
Capacity 580 kWh 250 kWh @ 1 MW
System Integrator ABB
Battery Manufacturer LG Chem
Cell Type Li-Ion
Number of Cells 10368
Lifetime1 3500 Cycles 2 Cycles/day, 250 kWh
System Costs2 ~2 Mio EUR ~500k Battery
1Warranty, real lifetime most likely higher.
2 Reflecting costs of procurement in 2011, incl. development costs of ABB and EKZ.

5 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Applications for battery energy storage systems
(BESS)
Voltage
control
Peak load
Islanded management
operation

BESS

Increasing PV
self- Frequency
consumption regulation

Virtual Power Plant

6 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Frequency control in ENTSO-E Continental Europe

Energy/Power ratio ↑
Time to activation ↑

Quelle: swissgrid.

7 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Provision of primary frequency control
1 MW Power plant 1 MW BESS

negative positive
positive
+0.5 MW

charge
+1 MW

negative
-0.5 MW

discharge
-1 MW

§ Decentralized control, based on locally measured frequency

§ BESS provides twice the flexibility of an equivalent power plant
(decoupling of energy and power)
§ Active state of charge management to ensure permanent availability

8 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Ramping times for different technologies

Ramping capability EKZ BESS: ∆2 MW in 40 ms, 50 MW/s

200.00
p.u. change in power per second

180.00
25
160.00 20
p.u. / s

15
140.00 10
5
120.00
0
100.00

80.00

60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00
Kohlekraftwerk Kernkraftwerk GuD Gaskraftwerk Pumpspeicher Batteriespeicher

9 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Smart working point adjustment to control State of
Charge –Measurements from real life operation

Source: Jonas Schmutz, semester thesis, Power Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 2013.

10 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Smart working point –Moving average (meas.)
‫݌‬
1
‫= ݌ ݌݌݌݌‬ ‫݌‬ −‫ ݌ ݌݌݌݌݌‬+ ‫݌ ݌݌݌݌݌‬ ‫ = ݌‬900 ‫݌‬
‫݌‬
‫݌݌݌݌݌‬

Time [hh:mm]

11 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Frequency reserves with the Zurich 1 MW BESS

Outage of a Swiss nuclear power plant of 1 GW at 04:46 am UCT

12 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

BESS fast response improves the performance of
primary frequency control

Simulated frequency response of the Continental European

interconnection to a major power fault for different levels of inertia H
and time constant of primary response t. Load: 330 GW, fault: 3 GW

Source: Koller et al. in Cigré 2016.

13 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

SoC range during primary frequency control
operation
§ State of Charge (SoC) recharging algorithm kept SoC between
40.2% and 75.7% at all times (580 kWh storage capacity)

BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

14
Reserve requirements and market structure for
primary reserves since January 2017
Total market size: ~1400 MW
(of total 3000 MW in ENTSO-E CE)

NL: 74 MW
DE: 603 MW
BE: 47 MW

AT: 62 MW
FR: 561 MW CH: 68 MW

15 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Price evolution for primary frequency control in
Germany

DACH + NL

+ BE

+ FR

16 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Capacity requirements for batteries providing
primary frequency control
§ ENTSO-E new network code: ability to fully activate PCR for 15 –30
minutes continuously (to be defined by each TSO)
§ Current German TSOs’rules for units with limited energy reservoirs lead to
capacity requirements 8x higher than technically needed
EKZ BESS control
PCR usage requirements Intra-day market
strategy

Normal PCR usage 220 kWh 640 kWh

Normal PCR usage +

±15 minutes full activation 720 kWh 1140 kWh
requirement
Normal PCR +
±30 minutes full activation 1220 kWh 1640 kWh
requirement
Source: Koller et al. in Cigré 2016.

17 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Concept under evaluation: BESS and other flexible
units jointly providing secondary frequency control as
Virtual Power Plant

Industry
Hospital Incineration
plant

Aggregate
Flexibility

Stabilize
network
Utility scale Residential
battery PV + battery
system

18 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

Conclusions

§ Battery energy storage can provide primary frequency control

with higher speed and accuracy than conventional units
currently providing this service

§ Regulation needs to carefully weight cost-benefit to avoid

setting overly restrictive rules for energy storage

§ Combining the capabilities of different technologies within a

virtual power plant offers new opportunities for the provision of
a diverse portfolio of ancillary services

19 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017

 Thank you

Dr. Marina González Vayá

Smart Grid Specialist
marina.gonzalezvaya@ekz.ch

20 BESS in frequency containment / Marina González, EKZ / July 6th 2017