A battery energy storage system (BESS) container to be used in the XFLEX HYDRO initiative arrived at EDF’s Vogelgrun hydropower plant on 1 April 2021.
Vogelgrun is a 142 MW run-of-river hydropower plant situated in France along the Rhine near the border with Germany. One of the plant’s units will be hybridised with the battery as part of the innovative EU-funded R&D project.
The battery-turbine hybrid demonstration is designed to add short-period energy storage and frequency control capability, while also reducing control requirements on the existing Kaplan turbine.
“This is a major step regarding on-site implementation of the hybrid unit,” said EDF’s John-Louis Drommi.
“The next weeks shall be very busy with site work eventually leading to the battery connection to the grid. The Andritz controller will also be operational on the site before we start the hybrid unit by the middle of June.”
Find out more about XFLEX HYDRO’s demonstration at Vogelgrun and watch the project video.
Project partners on the demonstration and their responsibilities are as follows:
- EDF is the owner of Vogelgrun hydropower plant and overall project coordinator;
- Power Vision Engineering (PVE) is developing the computer modelling and simulation of the hydro mechanical turbine and electrical system;
- ANDRITZ is leading computational flow analysis of the turbine, as well as adaptation of the master control for the hybrid;
- EPFL is developing the Smart Power Plant Supervisor (SPPS) and advanced control algorithms for the project, and is also responsible for the reduced-scale model test;
- ARMINES (together with MINES ParisTech) is implementing advanced control and forecasting tools, and coordinating control of the battery energy storage systems and hydropower plants;
- CEA INES is responsible for the analysis and specification of the battery system for design development; and
- UPC is conducting the field tests and the implementation of the monitoring system.
