REstore to use 18-MW Tesla battery in Belgium for grid balancing

Belgian energy technology company REstore NV on Monday switched on an 18-MW energy storage facility in Belgium using Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Powerpack batteries.

The facility in located at the Terhills resort in eastern Belgium and consists of 140 Powerpacks, which Tesla says in a Twitter post will balance the European electrical grid 100 times faster than fossil fuel plants.

The project was completed in six months, with the battery installation taking about five weeks, Tesla said.

140 Tesla Powerpacks now live in Belgium and balancing the European electrical grid 100 times faster than fossil fuel plants pic.twitter.com/f8XzCYgrJZ

— Tesla (@Tesla) May 14, 2018

Demand response aggregator REstore UK’s vice president, Louis Burford, told The Energyst that they are bundling assets or load with batteries in a “synthetic pool.” These pools or portfolios reduce the technical requirements on individual assets that otherwise would not be able to participate in certain balancing services. “By doing so you create value where it does not ordinarily exist. That is only achievable through synthetic portfolios,” he added.

The Belgian firm intends to develop a similar project in the UK, which will be announced in the coming weeks. It will be smaller than the one in Belgium.

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