Everoze launches ‘Batteries: Beyond the Spin’ report on digital inertia

Published October 2017

New report authored by Everoze finds battery-based energy storage could deliver significant savings for Irish and Northern Irish electricity system with ‘digital inertia’

Everoze was delighted to collaborate with AES and Queen’s University Belfast to author the report Batteries_Beyond_the_Spin.  This landmark study found that the All-Island electricity system could achieve €19 million in annual savings from 2019/20 by using batteries to stabilise the grid. Everoze also calculated that annual CO2 savings of approximately 1.4 million tonnes could be achieved through the more efficient operation of conventional generators. These savings are equivalent to eliminating the emissions from a city the size of Cork.

Beyond the Spin takes a forensic look at the technical challenge of managing Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF), and explores how the DS3 framework could be improved to help System Operators manage supply and demand on a subsecond level. The report was launched at an event hosted by EirGrid and features highlights from a two-year research project by Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), funded by Innovate UK Energy Catalyst. QUB has studied operating data from the 10 MW AES Kilroot Advancion® Energy Storage Array in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, since its deployment in January 2016.

Key recommendations are as follows:

  1. DEFINE RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS: Initiate a system-operator led study to define optimal response characteristics for digital inertia. Conduct further field trials to prove capability.
  2. IMPROVE DETECTION AND COMPLIANCE: Conduct research to better detect RoCoF, test compliance at finer time resolutions and consider introduction of emergency signals.
  3. ENABLE SIR-FFR SUBSTITUTION: Open FFR to speed of response faster than 0.15 seconds, to encompass inertial response. Calculate the technical exchange rate of FFR and SIR, conducting technoeconomic research into the intersubstitutability of the products.
  4. SET NEXT SNSP TARGET: Study the potential for digital inertia to raise the bar further after 2020, ensuring the Island of Ireland remains a world leader in grid decarbonisation.