Stability and efficiency with batteries
The demand for energy based on electric power is expected to increase dramatically over the coming years. In the short term this demand can be met by increasing the capacity from renewable DERs like wind and solar power. The expansion of production and the consumer base is however hindered by a lack of capacity in current grid infrastructures.
Energy storage with batteries can facilitate the expansion of renewable electricity and at the same time lower the need for costly extensions of grid infrastructure by a more efficient use of the existing networks.
Batteries also contribute to the reliability of delivery by providing the flexibility needed to maintain the required balance between production and consumption and to manage various disturbances, ensuring the stability of the EPES. Variations in transmission frequency may cause disturbances such as power-outages and ultimately cause damage to infrastructure, batteries play an important role in maintaining frequency.
Imbalances may result from demand exceeding production or when production exceeds demand. To this end batteries may help to meet the demand or store the excessive production for future peaks in demand. With an increase of renewable sources this situation can be managed with flexibility on both ends with storage techniques.
Batteries can be deployed on several levels in the EPES, including the transmission and distribution networks or at producers and individual consumers. The choice of deployment affects security requirements, and potential vulnerabilities.
The energy storage market has and is evolving very fast in Sweden in all three segments Residential, Commercial&Industry and Utilities. In a recent market study report made by ELECTRON partner Checkwatt covering the Scandinavian market, it is estimated that the battery market in Sweden will grow by 400% during 2024 increasing the connected energy storage capacity from 440 MW to 2200 MW. By 2030 we expect 6-10 GW of available battery capacity. This corresponds to the power of all our nuclear power plants. The flexibility of these batteries will significantly reduce the need to invest in new cables for the local electricity grids to meet future demand peaks.
The report is available for download here
Support services for flexibility
There are different types of flexibility services depending on the type imbalances or disturbances to handle. Due to their efficiency and modularity, batteries are well-suited for the delivery of such flexibility services. A common set of services are used to maintain the frequency, examples include FCR (Frequency Containment Reserve) and FFR (Fast Frequency Reserve). Such services are intended for fast activation (within seconds) and restoration of frequency, they are today effectively supported by batteries.
The flexibility services are typically procured by a (national) transmission system operator on a flexibility market, in which the capacity of flexibility assets (e.g., batteries) are traded by bids. The providers of these services, referred to as Aggregators, bring together various assets from electricity producers/battery providers willing to make their assets available to the market and the grid. Lately this also includes private homes offering their local batteries as flexibility assets, often as part of solar power installations.
ELECTRON platform and use cases
The proliferation of storage including large capacity battery parks in combination with growing numbers of private home installations creates a distributed system with vulnerabilities and potential attacks. Securing storage by preventing batteries from being compromised (e.g., by detection of malware, false data injection, DDoS) is vital. Simultaneously, for flexibility services, securing service delivery in electricity trading systems presents additional requirements, e.g., securing bids, guaranteeing offered capacity. As for storage the detection of threats (DoS, MiTM attacks, Phishing) is equally important.
The ELECTRON use cases have a relevance for the flexibility service and storage context. Electric vehicle charging networks (UC2) are being complemented with battery storage to manage peak loads, renewable sources like windfarm operations (UC3) are increasingly being connected as assets in the flexibility service infrastructure.
The results from the ELECTRON project provide valuable insights and guidelines concerning the potential cyber security risks for flexibility services delivery in which distributed battery storage is a central component. As for the EPES in general, prevention by training and simulations, the detection of anomalies and threats, their impacts and the methods and technologies for mitigation and restoration are fundamental areas.
The flexibility market which is based on the grid operator procuring flexibility on a day-ahead basis involves many different actors with different types of relations and contracts have been analysed and modelled for deployment of the ELECTRON blockchain solutions.