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1 MW battery

Litgrid tested the potential of the first 1 MW battery connected to the electricity grid in the Baltic States between September and December 2021. The 1 MW battery with a capacity of 1 MW and 1 MWh installed in the Vilnius transformer substation (TS) is the first pilot installation of its kind in the region.
 
This unique project by the Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator Litgrid, the first 1 MW battery connected to the electricity grid in the Baltic States, has triumphed at Europe’s largest renewable energy awards, The Smarter E Award in the Outstanding Project category. The project was also nominated and won in Grid Edge category at the Platts Global Energy Awards, organised by S&P Global. 
 
Registration link for Litgrid events regarding the battery: https://forms.office.com/e/VtuGf3S6JE 
 
 
The supplier of the 1 MW battery is Fluence,  an energy storage technology company founded by Siemens and AES. The battery was tested according to a test programme developed by the manufacturers and Litgrid. During the tests, the battery was connected to the 10 kV Vilnius substation.
 
Litgrid specialists tested the battery’s ability to perform more than ten different functions of the transmission network under real operating conditions of the Lithuanian electricity system. The tests included on-site and remote control of battery power, battery efficiency, emergency power function, frequency control functions, synthetic inertia response, voltage control function, isolated operation for the self-supply of power to the Vilnius TS, and many others.
 
Tests have confirmed that a 1 MW battery can contribute to controlling the parameters of the power system and ensure even smoother operation. The processing time for the battery management command was 0.087 seconds, while the complete changeover from charging to generation was even shorter at 0.07 seconds. This is essentially the same as the trigger times for relay protection.
 
The 1 MW battery pilot project established the conditions for connecting the batteries to the Litgrid grid and developed proposals for technical specifications that would set the requirements for new battery systems to be connected to the transmission grid. The project has also developed a mathematical model of the battery to simulate its performance.
 
A moment from the Platts Global Energy Awards, organised by S&P Global.
 
We invite you to watch videos on the progress of the project.
 
Start of battery testing:
 
 
 
Test results:
 
 
The smarter E AWARD ceremony
 
 
In addition to the 1 MW pilot battery already installed by Litgrid, another company of the EPSO-G, Energy cells will integrate a system of energy storage devices into the Lithuanian transmission grid with a total combined capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) and 200 megawatt-hours (MWh). Energy cells will install four 50 MW and 50 MWh energy storage parks in Vilnius, Šiauliai, Alytus and Utena. The energy storage system will serve as an instantaneous energy reserve for isolated operation and will ensure reliable, stable operation of Lithuania’s electricity system until synchronisation with the continental European grid, and in the future will contribute to the rapid integration of growing renewable energy sources.