BESS to support gas-fired power plant in Slovakia

Rendering of how the project will look. A containerised battery system is on the left and two power conversion units are on the right.[/caption]

Leclanché SA, a Swiss-based energy storage company, will provide its battery energy storage system (BESS) and energy management software to a natural gas-fired power plant in Levice, Slovakia. The project marks the first time battery storage technology will be used to support secondary frequency regulation application of a gas turbine.

The Leclanché EMS and BESS will be installed in the Veolia gas power plant in Western Slovakia. The 5.2 MW, 2.9 MWh energy storage system will be installed in the plant’s internal medium voltage grid. It will be used to help the plant comply with new European secondary frequency control regulations for automatic frequency restoration reserve (aFRR). The regulation, which goes into effective on January 1, 2022, requires the plant to deliver its full power, when requested by the transmission system operator (TSO), in just 7.5 minutes instead of the current 15 minutes.

Energodata, a provider of ancillary grid services in Slovakia and for the power plant in Levice, placed the order. Energodata, working with Slovak engineering, procurement and construction contractor TESLA Blue Planet, will supply the system including an Energodata control system, which will interface between the TSO and Leclanché’s EMS and BESS.