Fortum commissions 2MW battery at Jarvenpaa power plant in Finland

Fortum has installed the biggest battery in the Nordic countries at its Jarvenpaa power plant.

In Fortum’s Batcave battery project, the Nordic countries’ biggest lithium-ion battery storage was installed in conjunction with Fortum’s biomass-fired biopower plant in Jarvenpaa.

Electricity production forms that are condition-dependent, such as wind and solar energy, will require more flexibility from the electricity grid in the future. In addition to hydropower, also electricity storage brings flexible regulating power to the electricity system. The flexibility brought by a battery storage enables growth in the use of renewable energy sources in
Finland.

The Batcave battery’s nominal output is 2 megawatts (MW) and the energy capacity 1 megawatt-hour (MWh). The battery consists of approximately 6,600 lithium-ion cells, and it offers quick, second- and minute-level grid flexibility in frequency regulation. The Batcave name refers to “battery cave”, a construction container equipped with the latest battery technology and created as a test environment for new ideas. The battery project complements Fortum’s research on other future solutions, such as demand response and
virtual power plants.

“Our Batcave project takes us a big step closer towards the solar economy, where electricity storage plays an important role alongside renewable energy production forms. The electricity battery brings flexibility to the national electricity market, benefitting all electricity users. In addition to storing electricity, the Batcave project allows us to test completely new ideas for optimal control of the battery together with other flexible electricity production forms,” says Tatu Kulla, Head of Business Development, Fortum.

The investment cost of the Batcave development project is about EUR 1.6 million, for which Fortum will receive a 30 per cent energy investment subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The electricity battery is supplied by the French SAFT, which has decades of experience in manufacturing various battery technologies.