Statoil has selected Younicos to supply 1MW battery storage system for its Hywind Scotland project, a floating wind farm.
The purpose is to “teach” the battery when to hold back and store electricity, and when send power to the grid, thus increasing value of the power.
Statoil now has awarded a contract to Younicos to deliver a 1MW battery system that will be connected to Hywind Scotland. The storage solution project, named Batwind, will be operational from Q2 2018. This is the first battery storage system connected to a floating wind farm.
“As part of Statoil‘s strategy of gradually supplementing our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy, getting to understand energy storage is important. We believe battery storage will be key to future power systems, and with more renewables coming on it will be crucial to handle storage to ensure stability and reliability in the energy supply. Batwind adds value by mitigating wind variability – and by that make wind a more reliable energy producer year around. That will expand the use and market for wind and renewables in the future.”, says head of Hywind Development in Statoil, Sebastian Bringsværd.
Jayesh Goyal, Managing Director of Younicos said: “We’re very proud to partner with Statoil and contribute our experience from over 200 megawatts of storage projects to this groundbreaking project. By adding energy storage capabilities to another “first” – the world’s first floating wind park – we demonstrate the essential role that storage plays in such groundbreaking energy achievements.”
The two Y.Cubes, 10-foot modular battery containers, will be placed at the Hywind Scotland onshore substation in Peterhead, Scotland. Whereas a standard battery will charge and re-charge, the purpose of the Batwind storage solution project – where the 1MW battery from Younicos is one of several elements – is to understand how a battery can help increase the value of the produced electricity and how a battery best can work together with the wind farm and the grid.
“Through Batwind we are including Younicos’ intelligent Y.Q software – or a brain if you like – on top of the battery to ensure that the battery behaves the way we want it to behave. We want the battery to automatically know when to hold back and store electricity, and when to send it out to the grid. Battery energy storage systems have existed in the market for several years and it is rapidly developing. However, there is limited knowledge of how to make a battery act based on dynamic information, in order to maximize value of renewable energy”, says Bringsværd.
Based on the learnings and testing of the 1MW/1,3 MWh battery storage system connected to Hywind Scotland, Statoil and Masdar will assess next steps in further developing the solution. Batwind is a partnership between Statoil and Masdar. Hywind Scotland is operated by Statoil on behalf of partner Masdar, where Statoil holds an ownership share of 75% and Masdar 25%.