RWE building 117-MW battery to be coupled with German HPPs

German energy major RWE AG (ETR:RWE) has launched the construction of a 117-MW battery complex that will be virtually coupled with its hydropower plants (HPP) at home.

The battery is being installed across the company’s Lingen and Werne power stations in the states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, respectively. The system will consist of 420 lithium-ion battery racks housed in 47 overseas shipping containers and is due to become operational at end-2022, RWE said on Thursday.

The overall investment needed for the project is estimated at EUR 50 million (USD 58.9m).

The Lingen battery at RWE’s at the Emsland station will have a capacity of 45 MW, while the one at the Gersteinwerk HPP in Werne will be of 72 MW. Both batteries will be virtually coupled with RWE’s run-of-river HPPs along the river Mosel. The developer explained that raising or decreasing the flow-through at the power stations will make additional capacity available and balance the energy flow. It expects that the coupling process will raise the total capacity of the batteries by an additional 15%.

“Our project is setting new standards and shows how we can offer the market even more flexibility by intelligently linking up battery capacity with run-of-river power stations”, said Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.178)

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