Alpiq manages the largest, most powerful battery in Switzerland. High-capacity battery storages play more and more important role in increasing supply and operational safety of transmission networks. The 20 MW battery storage facility will go into operation in the third quarter of 2020 in Brunnen in the Canton of Schwyz.
The battery’s key figures are impressive: 20 MW of power and a capacity of 18 MWh, a volume equivalent to seven shipping containers. The stored energy could be used to simultaneously operate around 11,000 computers for twelve hours or drive 1,400 electric cars a distance of around 100 kilometres each.
Battery storage offers its capacity on the ancillary services market to stabilise the transmission grid. Integrated into his flexibility portfolio, Alpiq utilizes the 20 MW battery in Brunnen for secondary control purposes, later on he will apply to the national transmission grid operator, Swissgrid, to also qualify the battery for primary control. Alpiq is responsible for managing and marketing the battery.
As a subcontractor of Alpiq, Astron Informatics Ltd. took part in the implementation of the project. The integration of the battery storage into the Pooling application developed by Astron is in progress, through which the system is monitored and visualized.
“One of the major milestones in our several years of successful collaboration with Alpiq DTI is our involvement in the battery storage project. Through our work, we have been able to make a significant contribution to the success of the project, which is innovative and aims to increase the security of supply of the Swiss electricity system.” – said Tibor Sári, Project Manger of Energy Applications Business Unit at Astron Informatics Ltd.