Europe’s first commercial battery power plant to triple its capacity

German utility WEMAG, in partnership with storage software leader Younicos, began construction on a project that will nearly triple the storage capacity of its Schwerin 2 battery park.

With this upgrade, the utility’s storage resource will double its power output from 5 MW to 10 MW, while the energy capacity will increase from 5 MWh to 14.5 MWh.

Berlin- and Austin-based Younicos provides the necessary software for plant control and is supporting WEMAG with technical expertise during the implementation phase. Younicos will also integrate additional power electronics into the system.

The Schwerin battery park, commissioned in 2014, was the first commercial battery storage resource in Europe. Since then it has been an active participant in the region’s frequency regulation market. “The fact that WEMAG is now investing 5 million euros in order to increase the available power and energy for system service is a strong testament to the commercial success and performance of battery storage in Europe,” said Alexander Schönfeldt, Younicos Vice President of Sales for EMEA.

Christian Pegel, Minister for Energy, Infrastructure and Land Development of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, underlined that value during his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony: “Especially with regard to the expansion of renewable energies and the future shutdown of old power plants, it is necessary to invest in technologies to ensure the quality of supply and grid stability. The battery park in Schwerin was a pioneer of this development and has impressively shown that new technologies are more than capable of providing system services in the future.”

Following the start of the construction phase, WEMAG plans to complete the building in March 2017 and commission the second power plant block in June 2017. The utility is the general contractor of the project; the customer is Batteriespeicher Schwerin GmbH & Co. KG.

Photo credit: YOUNICOS AG