Lithuanian power transmission system operator Litgrid announced on Friday (12 January) that it has completed tests on a 1 megawatt (MW) experimental battery and smart energy system with a thermal accumulator.
“We are purposefully moving towards the transformation of energy, where 100 per cent of electricity will be generated from renewable energy sources. In such a functioning electrical system, it is essential to effectively utilise the possibilities of other energy systems with various energy storage devices,” said Rokas Masiulis, the head of Litgrid. “These unique experiments provided valuable knowledge to the transmission system operator and the scientific community about new flexible ways of managing the electrical system. They also allowed researchers and students to gain real-world experience, stepping into a changing job market.”
The study was jointly conducted with Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). Litgrid and KTU tested accumulators in five different demonstrations of the hybrid system’s operation. The hybrid system consisted of KTU faculty buildings, a solar power plant, a heat pump, a thermal accumulator, coolers, a data centre that needs constant cooling and a geographically distant 1 MW battery controlled by Litgrid.
“The ongoing energy transformation necessitates the integration of various energy sources into hybrid energy supply systems. This experiment not only confirmed that the already developed systems can function successfully but also provided a wealth of new information to improve the control algorithms of such systems,” said Saulius Gudžius, the head of the Department of Electrical Power Systems at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Kaunas University of Technology.
Based on these, KTU and Litgrid plan to develop flexibility services research with regional transmission system operators and scientific institutions on an international scale.