Borkum (Germany) Technologies

A power intensive Energy Storage System (PI-ESS) or short-duration ESS is an Energy Storage System characterized by frequent charge and discharge cycles and reactive power supply for an optimized power network operation. In Islander, the Pi-EES consists of two complementary technologies:

• Ultracapacitors: they provide power for short period of about a few seconds. One of their advantages is that they can provide hundreds of thousands of charge/discharge cycles without noticeable degradation in performance.
• Lithium battery: provides fast frequency for longer duration beyond 1 minute. Depending on the technology, they can withstand around 1000 charges/discharge cycles.

Power intensive energy storage system plan to provide following services: fast frequency response, primary frequency regulation, local voltage regulation, reactive power voltage control and P/Q setpoint tracking. These services will ensure a safe and efficient power network operation with high penetration of renewable sources.

The electrolyser converts the excess electricity into hydrogen by splitting water molecules into their atomic components. The produced hydrogen is then stored in a pressurised tank. On demand, the stored hydrogen is converted back into electricity in a fuel cell by recombination with oxygen. The hydrogen storage system also includes a buffer Li-ion battery pack for short term storage and power balancing.

The hydrogen-based storage stores renewable energy when the demand is low  and then supply the energy during peak consumption periods . This allows to increase the penetration of renewables and the self-consumption on Borkum. Counting with 12h work, the system would produce up to 6kg of hydrogen a day.

Each of the 30 household PV+Li-ion solutions consists of solar roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels, a Li-ion battery pack, all the needed power electronics (inverter, protections, etc), a smart meter, and connection ready for its aggregation to the central smart IT platform.

The planned PV+Li-ion solutions produce, store and deliver electricity to 30 additional households on the island, offering an estimated additional cumulative electricity storage capacity of 194 MWh per year.

Each building PV+Li-ion solution is composed of photovoltaic roof installations, a Li-ion battery set, all the related power electronics (inverter, protections, etc), a smart meter, a building management system and connection ready for its aggregation to the central smart IT platform.

The planned PV+Li-ion solutions produce, store and deliver electricity to 3 additional larger buildings on the island, offering an estimated additional cumulative electricity storage capacity of 244 MWh per year.

The IT platform acts as an aggregator and distributed energy resources management system. It consists of several modules such as data acquisition and big data management, monitoring, control algorithms, market integration tools and forecasting modules (individual and macroscopic energy demand and production forecast, weather forecast, energy price forecast).

The IT platform is able to optimally decide whether the generated renewable energy should be self-consumed, stored or sold to the energy market. The platform can provide the service of selling the energy to the national market and also help the power system operator to manage its electricity grid and the fluctuating energy renewable resources such as wind and solar. It ensures at any time voltage management of the power grid and optimization of the power flow by reacting rapidly to changes in frequency and voltage monitored by the IT platform.

In winter, the sea is used as a heat source for heating a new building with 100 residential units. The system pumps seawater with a temperature fluctuating between 5 and 20 °C and conducts it through pipes to a heat exchanger and heat pump system. The heat pump supplies heat to a so called “cold local heating grid” with an average temperature of 30°C connected to a buffer storage tank. The heat is then transferred via insulated pipes to a substation where heat pumps raise the water temperature. Hot water is then supplied to the 100 residential units.

In summer, the sea acts as a cold reservoir and the “cold heating grid” serves as air conditioning.

This pilot allows to use the heat from the North Sea for heating and cooling and contributes to the shift from fossil fuel to renewable sources for heat generation.

The public lighting network consists of 1,100 light points (LED). All these points are distributed in 20 stations. This installation is independent of the island’s main power grid. Therefore, to access the consumption, hardware is needed at the switching points, a smart meter, and a router to read the consumption values. In addition, the possibility of installing a light sensor to know when the system is on and off is being considered. The street lighting network will be connected to and managed by the IT platform.

The municipality of Borkum decided to keep the street lights on all night to ensure safety. So, the public lightning network and smart IT platform plan to switch the system on at sunset and off at sunrise, respectively. In addition, the network supply will have to be coordinated with the rest of the island’s energy systems to reduce energy demand.

Electric charging stations are important for expanding electromobility as they supply power for electric vehicles to recharge their battery. Borkum is ideally suited for electromobility, being characterised by a low traffic volume which travel short distances across the island. However, Borkum still has a limited electric vehicle charging network (consisting of three charging stations) and the electrification of the public fleet is less than 20%.

The EV transport network will be composed by 5 new charging stations that will be installed under the scope of ISLANDER, where the existing electric vehicles can connect. This improvement of the infrastructure will constitute an incentive for Borkum inhabitants to ease their electric transportation.

The demand response app seeks to incentivise consumers to follow the most convenient consumption patterns considering actual and forecasted status of the island’s electrical grid (for instance, expected renewable generation, energy stored, etc).

The demand response app will be made available to all residents of the island. The implementation of demand response contributes to shape the consumption demand patterns to coincide as much as possible with the renewable production patterns. This contributes to the smooth integration of renewables and helps customer to access energy services and have a better understanding of the energy system. This apps also set incentives to save energy which in turn help to reduce the energy bill.