One of Sweden’s DNOs Ellevio Group is investing in four new battery storage projects totalling 70MW, supplied by Alfen, the latest in a series of large-scale projects.
In the first phase, two battery energy storage units of 15MW each will be deployed in Kungsbacka and Lindome with construction expected to finish in spring this year. A further 40MW of battery storage will be deployed at a yet-to-be-determined site in central Sweden. All three are set to come online in 2024.
The storage systems will help to balance and optimise the grid as more renewables come online, Ellevio said. The distribution network operator (DNO), or electricity network company as it describes itself, is launching the projects through its energy service division Ellevio Energy Solutions.
The new projects add to an existing 10MW system in Grums that Ellevio ordered from Netherlands-based system integrator Alfen in May last year, and Ellevio indicated the firm would be the supplier for the new projects too. The Grums unit will come online this year.
Electricity demand in Sweden is set to double over the next 20 years to around 300TWh by 2025, and the country’s substantial pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) capacity is starting to be saturated by demand for flexibility services. This has meant a substantial pick-up in battery storage projects being launched in the past 12 months.
That is exemplified by the fact that the Grums order was the largest in the country at the time, since which projects totalling 20MW, 40MW, 60MW (across two sites) and 70MW have been announced.
“Battery storage is an exciting technology with many different benefits for the electricity system. A doubling of electricity use within just over 20 years means that we have to develop an entire ecosystem with digital solutions, energy storage, support services and more,” said Kristofer Fröjd, head of strategy and business development within the Ellevio Group.
The firm is one of Sweden’s three main DNOs along with division of state-owned power company Vattenfall and Germany-based international utility E.ON. Vattenfall made an earlier move in the battery storage space in 2020 and operates the largest operational battery unit today by capacity at 5MW/20MWh, also built by Alfen, using batteries from automotive OEM BMW’s i3 EV model.
E.ON has not announced any battery storage projects in Sweden that Energy-Storage.news is aware of. However, developer OX2’s 40MW system, mentioned earlier, will be built adjacent to a substation run by E.ON.
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