The 25MW/25MWh battery energy storage system deployed by the French company Saft has been up and running in the Carin region in northeastern France, which borders Germany.
The battery storage system will meet peak grid demand and provide French grid operator RTE with ancillary services including the Primary Control Reserve (PCR).
This is the third of four battery storage projects that Saft has provided for France's Total Energies. Total Energies was awarded a long-term contract by RTE in 2020 through a competitive bidding process called AOLT.
Before the end of last year, Saft had completed the deployment of a 36MW/36MWh battery storage system at a power plant operated by Total Energies in Dunkirk, where it had already deployed a 25MW/25MWh battery storage system a year earlier. energy system. The total installed capacity currently deployed at the Dunkirk power plant reaches 61MW, making it the largest battery storage system in France to date.
The fourth energy storage system in Total Energies' portfolio will be deployed in Gran Puiz, north-central France, and will be the largest of the four at 43MW/43MWh. Total Energies said the battery storage system will be operational by the end of 2022.
Each project leverages existing land and infrastructure that Total Energies already owns and operates, including points of interconnection to the grid.
Total Energies operates two combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants in Carlin to produce energy for storage. Total Energies' production facility in Carlin also produces polymer and hydrocarbon resins for the European market and is also exploring the use of the facility to produce green fuels.
Saft delivered 11 self-contained lithium-ion containerized battery energy storage system units for the project based on its Intensium Max brand of megawatt-scale application solution design and battery energy storage systems.
Kristin Schumann, deputy director of Total Energies' energy storage solutions team as project developer, also recently discussed his project portfolio in more detail in these webinars.
Schumann stressed that these projects' battery storage units connected directly to the grid need to be available 24/7 and send 25 individual data points to the transmission system operator (TSO) every 10 seconds.
Corentin Baschet, an analyst at energy storage consultancy Clean Horizon, pointed out in an interview with industry media in March this year that the business case for deploying battery storage projects in France is getting bigger and bigger.
About 900MW of publicly announced battery storage projects tracked by Clean Horizon will come online by the end of 2023, Baschet said.
Additionally, 2021 revenues for battery storage asset owners and operators are well above Clean Horizon's forecast. New tenders by RTE companies and the pan-European ancillary services market are among the drivers driving the French energy storage market forward.
