Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: Catwell
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 878 views
  • Likes 8 likes
  • Comments 4 comments
Related
Recommended

Scottish Power to install large lithium-ion battery - Tesla V3 Supercharging

Catwell

Scottish Power has announced plans to undergo a massive power project in Europe to harness UK’s wind and solar farms. The company will be connecting a massive battery, half the size of a soccer field, to the Whitelee onshore windfarm in early 2020 to acquire more power from its 215 turbines.

 


Scottish Power’s newest battery will help to power UK and can help with any small power fluctuations. (Image Credit: Danny Lawson - PA Images via Getty Images)image

 

This project will be the first of many leading to many similar projects across six of Scottish Power’s major renewable energy sites over the next 18 months. The company promises the 50 Megawatt battery system provides a bigger leap towards renewable energy, granting continuous electrical supply for the energy system in the UK.

 

The large lithium-ion battery has twice the power capacity of any battery found in the UK. It only takes an hour to completely charge and can flow power. It will also help Whitelee to harness more power by sheltering electricity when windy weather takes over and will be put to use when wind speeds settle down.

 

Each battery will also help out UK’s energy system by flowing electricity in short bursts to compensate for any fluctuations in renewable energy generation. They react very quickly, in milliseconds, and are efficient as a virtually instantaneous tool for the operator.

 

Scottish Power’s battery installations are the most ambitious in the energy storage sector, which involves projects from FTSE energy companies Centrica and Drax, along with Orsted, the companies wind power competitor.

 

Construction plans involving the Whitelee project from Scottish Power is set to start early in 2020 and will be fully functional by the year’s end. Plans were first announced months after Scottish Power used up its last fossil fuel power plants, becoming the first company to generate all its electricity from renewable energy sources.

 

Scottish Power landed a £700m deal with Drax to take over its final four gas power stations in England. This was done so the company can focus more on investing in renewable energy and its energy network business.

 

image

Tesla’s Supercharging Stations are now available for all Tesla owners and can be used in a short amount of time to complete their journey. (Image Credit: Tesla)

Meanwhile, Tesla has made their V3 Supercharging stations available to all Tesla car owners, which can be found in the companies Fremont, California factory. All eight stalls found at the factory are open to every Tesla owner, and each stall has charging speeds of up to 250kW. This allows drivers of a Model 3 to add 180 miles of driving distance to their vehicle in just 15 minutes of charging time. Model S owners can gain an additional 130 miles in just 15 minutes of charge-up time, with the Model X getting 115 miles in the same charge time. The Supercharger network is unique from other electrical vehicles by making it so that Tesla car owners can drive for long distances without using more than one charging system. V3 Superchargers will be installed globally later on this year.

 

Have a story tip? Message me at: cabe(at)element14(dot)com

http://twitter.com/Cabe_Atwell

  • In the UK, EDF completed a 49MW Lithium battery storage at West Burton in June 2018.

     

    EDF Battery storage

     

    and Centrica completed its 49MW Lithium battery storage station in Cumbria in December 2018.

     

    Centrica battery storage

     

     

    I think the UK Grid will still be around for a while to come. Protection systems in the UK rely on high fault currents to trip the breakers, micro-grids usually have current limiting, so the protection would not operate. There is also a lot of off-shore wind and potentially wave power that needs to be fed into the system somehow.

     

    Generation is also not spread out across the country where it is required. The power hungry south east has very little generation, so power still has to get there somehow.

     

    The battery systems are usually individually quite small and paralleled up to produce the 49MW. The batteries sit at around 1000V DC and are floated with earth fault monitoring that shuts down the inverters in the event of a fault. Overcurrent is via fast acting semiconductor fuses. Each battery cell has its own internal protection against over-current and over-temperature.

     

    Each inverter has its own cooling plant and temperature monitoring and will shut-down to protect itself.

     

    The inverters then feed into a standard electrical distribution system, through switchgear and step-up transformers out onto the network.

     

    There is a built in water fire suppression system, that is contained within the building / drains. Generally the facilities are unmanned, so it would probably be a fairly stand-off approach from the fire and rescue service.

     

    The station generally floats around 25MW capacity, so it can offer rapid response to over and under frequency excursions on the network.

     

    Kind regards.

  • in reply to dubbie

      wrote:

    Maybe the days of the National Grid are coming to an end and we will all end up with micro-grids for our locality.

     

     

    I've read that somewhere else; an interesting thought!

     

    Neil

  • This could well be a good step forward for improving the usefulness of wind and solar energy generation but it will still only manage smaller variations in power availability. I wonder if there is enough Lithium in the world to make enough batteries to make a truly effective system. Maybe the days of the National Grid are coming to an end and we will all end up with micro-grids for our locality.

     

    Dubbie

  • A 50 Megawatt Lithium battery system sounds frightening.  It would be interesting to see what their safety systems and failure mitigations are.