In-depth article
Energy Storage in the Ferroamp System
A battery can serve many functions in a property’s electrical system. It can both reduce consumption peaks and cost peaks throughout the day. As they can also help balance the power grid, markets are now being created where both large electricity consumers and households can earn money by selling the battery services to grid owners.
A battery can serve many functions in a property’s electrical system. It can both reduce consumption peaks and cost peaks throughout the day. As they can also help balance the power grid, markets are now being created where both large electricity consumers and households can earn money by selling the battery services to grid owners.
Benefits of Energy Storage
1. Reduce consumption peaks
The power grid’s capacity limits how much energy can be used at a given moment. If too much needs to be delivered simultaneously, the grid becomes congested. That’s why grid companies are increasingly introducing so-called power tariffs. This means that your fee is partly determined by the highest power you use, i.e., the hour during the month when you consume the most electricity. Charging an electric vehicle while using the stove and vacuum cleaner, for example, can be expensive as it affects future fees. A battery can then provide power when needed most, reducing the peaks and keeping tariffs down.
2. Alternative to a more robust connection
Congestion can also occur between the property and the grid. For example, when several EV chargers need to be installed in a garage, a more robust grid connection may be required. This can involve high costs in the form of thick cables that may need to be buried. A battery that can relieve and balance consumption over time can offer a cheaper alternative in these cases.
3. Spot price control
When electricity demand is highest during the morning and evening, the so-called spot price of electricity is at its highest. It is the cheapest at night. With a battery that charges when electricity is most affordable and discharges when it is most expensive, you can make money on the difference while relieving the grid.
4. Increase self-consumption of solar power
Tenant owner associations and larger property owners with a main fuse of over 100 amps receive no tax reduction on the electricity they sell to the grid. Therefore, it is profitable to use the self-produced electricity within the property as much as possible. With a battery, you can charge the surplus during sunny hours and use it to reduce consumption or price peaks.
5. Ancillary Services
Opportunities are now created for property owners to earn money by selling ancillary services for balance or frequency regulation to the Swedish power grid. Since the power grid must always be balanced with equal production and consumption, there must be a reserve that can be switched on and off within just a few seconds. The market for providing these services is also opening up for smaller players. A so-called aggregator can collect many smaller resources like batteries, solar cell installations, or electric vehicle chargers and sell the combined capacity to the Swedish power grid.
There are many different types of services, but one attractive example for battery owners is FCR-D (Frequency Containment Reserve – Disturbance). Here, the battery can act as insurance in the system if a sudden disturbance occurs, such as a sudden change in weather or a production stop in a power plant. The battery can then be activated quickly, often within a few seconds or minutes, until other long-term resources are activated. Payment is received regardless of whether the battery is used or not; it is the preparedness that is the commodity being traded.
Markets and services for this are now being developed, and for the battery to participate, it must be controllable and able to react quickly enough. Ferroamp is working to make this market available to its customers and is currently participating in a project with Varbergs Energi to collect capacity that can be sold further.
