German energy supplier Avacon and Rolls-Royce 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 Rolls-Royce’s MTU battery storage can be intelligently linked to contribute to an efficient energy supply and to stabilise the energy system.

Avacon (www.avacon.com) 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, commissioned the MTU battery storage system in northern Germany, together with Avacon’s chief technology officer Rainer Schmittdiel and Lukas Köhler, managing director for sales and service at Rolls-Royce Power Systems in Germany.

“We are delighted to be working with Avacon again,” said Köhler. “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 stabilisation. Batteries are among our strategic business areas and ensure energy security worldwide.”

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 intelligent algorithms. On the one hand, this should help balance the volatility of power generation from PV systems. On the other, the project aims to increase the local self-consumption rate to up to 100 per cent at times. This relieves the power grid and increases the overall stability of the system.

Rolls-Royce (www.rolls-royce.com) supplies large-scale batteries that consist of modular units for capacity and power and can be flexibly configured to any size. The components include integrated battery cabinets and the MTU (www.mtu-solutions.com) EnergetIQ intelligent control system. They are used primarily for grid services, energy trading and the integration of renewable energies.